Polishing, polishing, polishing. Get them grits 'a movin. Polishing, polishing, polishing. Raw glass!!!
Yeah, I did three hours yesterday and today.
The pits just aren't changing.
Texereau has a nice graph showing pits per square millimeter on one axis and hours of polishing time on the other.
He says that when you get to about 80 pits/mm^2 you are done as far as a novice can get.
His graph is for a 6 Inch mirror, and crosses 80 pits/mm^2 after 4 hours. He does say that an 8 Inch would take twice that long. And he's using rouge.
The center of my mirror has 0 pits. At about 3 Inches radius (3 Inches from the center) I get to 1 pit at 3.50 Inches radius I'm at about 20 at 3.75 I get 50 at 3.90 I get about 100
These pits are just barely visible if you get a strong light reflected at about 45 degrees and using just my eye. They look like the mirror has something on it.
Under a ten power loupe, they are obvious.
Even using a ten power loupe, you can't see them if you don't get the light right.
So, Are these pits too small to worry about or what?
I tried a half hour with the lap on top, and it might have made a difference.
I'm also out of C. O.
Oh, by the way. Newport optical just made me really mad.
I called Tuesday, and ordered some C.O. They said they would ship it Wednesday next day air, and I'd get it Thursday (Today) Well, I didn't get it, so I called.
(Laurie on the line) "Well, I'll have to check with Chris. I'll call you back"
No call
(Chris on the line) "Laurie is at lunch, she'll call you back"
No call
(Laurie on the line) "Chris will send it to you maybe Friday. You should get it Saturday"
So I politely told them that I wanted it Today, that's why I ordered it Tuesday, and that if they couldn't be trusted to fill a simple order when I made it very plain that it was important to me to get it Thursday, that they would not get my business. Thank you very much.
So I am listening to the busy signal at Willman-Bell now.
Sigh..... So, I'm done with polishing, took this entire week off to get things finished, and I'm no further than I was on Monday. Fun Fun Fun.
I did get some 1.4375 Inch bearings for the top end of my fork.
A book I have said that I need to use "Bearings equal to one half of the diameter of the primary" Do they mean 4 Inch bearings on each side of the fork!!! Couldn't be. Maybe 2+2=4?
I sure think that these bearings will be able to hold a tube that weighs less than a hundred pounds. What do you think?
It's metal work tomorrow. (I have a Sherline mill and lathe) and I'll finish the mirror cell and get it into the tube.
-Alan Kilian