> Hey I haven't tried the pencil test yet to see if the tool is stil making
> good contact. I gotta goe do that.
DON'T use pencil tests for a polished surface (I hope I'm not too late)! Most pencils will be made of some mixture of clay (with lots of abrasive sand in it) and graphite. I remember trying to mark a mirror ON THE BACK with a hard pencil, and pressing hard to mark the line accross to check the suspected astigmatic figure. Imagine my shock when I clearly saw the line from the FRONT in a Foucalt test ! The pencil scratched the back hard and Twymann effect of releasing the strain warped the mirror all the way to the front ! This a true story, folks. Need I say that I don't let pencils anywhere near my mirrors ?
For the tool contact tests : just look thru the back of the mirror while polishing. The squares in good contact will look very black and shiney, and you shouldn't see any polishing compound flow between the square and the surface of the mirror. If your mirror has ground back surface, smear it with water/glycerine, that will make it temporarily transparent.
Bratislav