Re: [ATM] "Render Unto Ceasar. . . . "

[artbianconi@blast.net]

Hello Roger, 

The mirror I started is not bad. In a playground populated by 
mirrors with TDE's, mine has a slightly turned up edge that will 
take an experienced mirror maker less time to complete.

Gordon Waite promises a minimum of 1/10th accuracy when 
he's through. He's been extremely generous to all and 
supportive. If anyone is going to finish my mirror, it will be he.

Thanks for the complimentary remarks. They were nice to see.

Art


On 19 May 2004 at 8:01, Roger Chisholm-Batten wrote:

Art,

One of the most sensible posts in this forum for a long  while.  
Agree whole-heartedly with you. Took much the same path 
myself without any regret then or now.

Regards,

Roger

----- Original Message ----- 
From: <artbianconi@blast.net>
To: <atm@atmlist.net>
Sent: Monday, May 17, 2004 5:54 PM
Subject: [ATM] "Render Unto Ceasar. . . . "


> After almost three decades of designing and making things for
> others, frequently with composites, you get intuitive finding
> solutions and comfortable with the material.
>
> I allowed this comfort to delude me into thinking that because
> OTA design and fabrication is relatively benign, that I should
> make a mirror too. That way I could proudly say: " I did it all
> myself". At my age, you'd think I'd know better than to get suckered
> into something by my ego!
>
> Another reason I should have stayed away from mirror making
> was my oft demonstrated bewilderment at understanding the
> process. It's not the idea of generating surfaces accurate to
> angstroms that bothered me so much as the magical, mystery
> tour of translating surface abberations into something parabolic
> with movements that appear to be created by tribal shamans from the
> interior of the Dark Continent.
>
> Well folks, this man is eating crow! I have no desire to build lots
> of mirrors; just one. It's become painfully apparent that the amount
> of time needed to climb the learning curve to build just one good
> mirror is considerable and more than I care to spend.
>
> If the time I spend building polishing tables, making Faoucoult
> testers, constructing mirror benches, pouring dental tools, heating
> pitch, grooving and pressing laps and the arduous testing and
> figuring were applied elsewhere, not only would the ink in my bank
> statement be blacker but I'd have my telescope built too.
>
> To invest so much time into making just making one mirror is not
> wise, especially for one such as me who has such varied interests,
> responsibilities and commitments.
>
> I've learned a lot and met some wonderful people along the way, so
> the investment thus far is not without value. It's best, however,
> that I acknowledge my limitations and do what I do best: cut carbon
> and glass plies and mix resin.
>
> Last night I did just that and it was enormous fun: I took a roll of
> corrigated card board, saturated it with resin, rolled it into a
> tube and set it aside to cure. This morning I awoke to the lightest,
> strongest, cheapest telescope tube, I'd ever held! The flutes are on
> the outside. I can either repeat the process with the flutes inside
> or simply wrap it with a sheet of heavy craft paper, saturated in
> resin.
>
> It wasn't my idea. Molt taylor died about ten years ago. An
> innovative airplane designer, he made, among other things, a
> 170 mile-per-hour airplane using that technique. A single place,
> PAPER AIRPLANE that gets almost 3 miles per hour per horsepower and
> sips fuel at the absurdly low rate of 4 gallons per hour!
>
> Taylor was not alone in innovating. Burt Rutan built structural
> panels using foam, resin and bed sheets! They turned out to be
> stronger, lighter and less expensive than the construction method
> used on a popular airplane design of that period.
>
> If someone had told me that to tell the time, I'd have to learn
> watch making, and I had no passion for watch making, the right
> choice would have been obvious. It's taken longer than it should
> have to discover that mirror making is less science, and more art
> form and that I love astronomy more than polishing glass.
>
> Thanks for all the support
>
> Art Bianconi
>
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>



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