Let me say up front: Polishing is boring. There’s no real sound, no tactile feedback, and the work is slow going. Unlike grinding, you can put in many hours of work and not have any obvious result. As a result, motivation slides and work slows. Since my last update I’ve put in another 2 hours. Even so, in that time I’ve learned a bit more about the process. Firstly, to my disbelief, it seems I cut corners at the beginning … Continue reading →
There are reasons for my recent silence: First, I’m in the middle of exams (one left to go, wish me luck!), and I’ve taken some forward steps in my career which have made me a whole lot busier. But this doesn’t mean nothing has happened. I’ve rebuilt the polishing board, to sort out a few problems that only became apparent while I was using it, put microfaceting on the lap, and done about an hour’s worth of polishing. Also, I’ve … Continue reading →
Wow… Fifteen month’s after I first laid hands on my glass, I have finally begun polishing. Let me say up front that so far no part of the process has been anything like I imagined. I’ve read the literature, I’ve read personal accounts like this one, and none of them conveyed the sheer diabolical nature of a brand new pitch lap at the beginning of polishing! The coefficient of friction was a meaningless term, as it switched from “superglue” to … Continue reading →
It is official – my mirror is done grinding. Although I had planned to stop at #800 grit, I found myself with time to kill at the last class, and decided to give it a few wipes with #1000. I spent about 45 minutes working with this stuff, so that I’m confident my mirror is now a perfect spherical section, within a tolerance of about 8 microns (since that’s about the average size of individual grains of #1000 carborundum). Which … Continue reading →
Things have gotten quite busy at work – servers have crashed, and I’ve been putting in a lot of late nights putting out fires, rebuilding services and restoring backups. This has left me no time at all for mirror grinding, so yesterday afternoon at the Class was the first bit of work I’ve managed since last time. I made a near-fatal error, however, which almost ended the project right there… Johan was there with an interesting toy: a vintage naval … Continue reading →
