Re: [ATM] Slurry/water dispenser

[Michael Lindner <mikell@optonline.net>]

Julio Sanchez wrote:
> I have enyoyed and learned from all the feedback on the AC controller circuit for a water or slurry dispenser. I don't want to industrialize amateur telescope building. My problem is that I have a home-made grinding/polishing machine (like many of you guys) and sometimes I forget to add the few drops of water or polishing solution every few minutes. Perhaps I got distracted with my computer or with a minor family crisis . Then the polisher sticks to the glass and I have a big problem in my hands. I have chipped more than one blank and tore more than one good pitch lap on such occasions.
> So it would nice to have a system that puts in the water or slurry for me if I forget to do it, and then I can go and log-on without having an explosion in the back of my mind.
> That is my motivation in this project. Whatever comes out I will share with all of you, of course.

Thanks Julio,

In that spirit, here's what I do for my homemade grinding machine. For 
grit, I don't do anything - I stand there. There are too many variables, 
and automating the problem is to me more work than standing there. 
Likewise for figuring.

For polishing, I have two mechanisms I use. First, an IV bag (or even a 
ziploc, see my earlier posts) drips water on the work, one drop every 
few seconds (the nice thing about the IV bag is you can adjust the flow 
for changes in humidity, size of the work, etc - with the ziploc you can 
increase the flow by making the hole bigger, or replace the bag if it's 
too big). It doesn't matter if the drops hit the back of the tool, it 
will eventually drip down onto the blank. That gives my about 15 minutes 
between having to do anything with the machine. My second piece of 
equipment is a watch with a count down time. Every 15 minutes it beeps 
and wherever I am I know it's time to check the machine and add CeO or 
whatever.

Clear skies.
-- 
Michael Lindner
http://www.starastronomy.org *** http://home.att.net/~mikel
http://www.atmsite.org *** http://www.atmlist.net
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