From: Guy Brandenburg 
To: Robert Fifarek ,  atm{at}shore.net
Reply-To: Guy Brandenburg 


I am responding. There is no set depth or width, but I have found that it
definitely helps if the grooves are present at all times. You can use a
single-edge razor blade to hack them out if you don't have anything else,
but the best thing (I have found) for opening them up and keeping them open
and neat is a little piece of copper sheet metal - very small, maybe 40 mm
by 10 mm (1 1/2" by 1/2", more or less), formed into a loop and
bolted into the end of a no-longer-needed soldering iron. When it is heated
up, it cuts through the pitch like a hot knife through butter, and you can
scoop it up and pour it back into your pitch bucket.

However, the hot soldering iron does change the shape of the pitch lap, so
you really ahve to do a hot - or at least warm - press afterwards.

And the best thing for hot and warm presses is an infrared heat lamp. Much
more efficient than a hair dryer.



Robert Fifarek wrote:
> I am wondering whether the need to have wide and deep grooves in the
> pitch polishing tool is really necessary? I am polishing out an f4, 16"
> plate glass mirror. The gugolz pitch is working well, but the grooves are
> starting to close up. I can clearly see the grooves through the back of
> the mirror when I am  MOT, and the polishing mixture flows through the
> grooves. So when and how deep should they be to continue? Also, I do not
> receive any email from the list anymore, and do not know why. Could
> someone please respond to this email if for nothing else, just to see if
> it works for me? Thanks.
> Rob in Ramona
>
>


--
Guy Brandenburg
Washington DC, USA
http://home.earthlink.net/~gfbranden/GFB_Home_Page.html

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