Re: ATM 3 in blank

["James Taylor" <u2pilot@satx.rr.com>]

> I got the 3 in blank today.
> Will start the not so rough grinding saturday.
> I plan on making it an F8 with a bit of correction.
> Is there any different / special precautions when
> grinding such a small mirror, or should I just hit
> it like I did with my 8 in?

PK:
    I just finished my first mirror, a 4.25 incher.  I can tell you
this.....big hands - small mirror - WATCH OUT!  That puppy can slip out of
your hands like a piece of ice.  Mine did and I dropped it only 3 or 4
inches onto a wood chopping block table and put a crack inside the glass.
Fortunately it didn't propagate and I went on to finish it.
    It's also very difficult, if not impossible, to get both hands
comfortably on the glass at once so I did a lot of one-handed pushing.
Problem there is that you can't quite get any part of your hand to fit
nicely over an edge to hold on to and you get many cramped hands over the
issue.  I tried hand over hand as well and that was OK.  Maybe you'll have
better luck than me in that respect.  I did finish the glass, but ended up
at the doctor's office with tendonitis in my left thumb because of it.

 >(some have concerns
> I may have problems rolling edge out grinding)

    Funny, I didn't have a rolled edge at all.  In fact, I had a turned UP
edge when I first started polishing.  I worked almost exclusively MOT and
that probably did it.  I was grinding with a plate glass tool of the same
size.

James Taylor