ATM "Big" Dob.

[Roger Ceragioli <rogerc@dakotacom.net>]

Dear ATM friends,

Well, I'm finally breaking out of my little glass domain, just a bit!  My
12.5" f/6 "Big" Dob mirror is polished out and I'm hand figuring it with a
6" lap and rouge.  So far the figuring (knock on wood!) is going very
easily and the knife-edge shadows look nice.  I got some seizure streaks
and a bright sleak early on from using too little rouge.  But now the
streaks seem to be gone, though the sleak may not polish completely away.
Oh, well.  It's been fun to do the figuring slowly by hand.  Almost makes
me want to grind one out by hand again--except for the polishing!  That's
NO fun by hand.

By the way, for washer fans, copper washers work really nicely, are softer
than steel but don't wear away fast.  We've been using them at work and I
can highly recommend them.  Possibly if you embed them in a soft pitch, you
could hog out with them, as well as the rest of the grinding.  Grind for 15
minutes, press for 5, grind for 15 minutes, press for 5.  I bet you could
hog out with them.  Has anyone tried this?

Take care,
Roger