From: John Murray 
To: Amateur Telescope Makers , Mirror-O-Matic{at}yahoogroups.com
Reply-To: John Murray 


G'day again,
        First the good news.........
        I got the two seperated with a bit of help from Ernie. We continued at
500
for another 1/2 hour and then went up to 1000. So far so good...

        Now the bad news........
        When hand grinding I was mixing the 500 grit by hand into a paste and
then
applied to the blank to continue grinding. I also did this for the 1000
grit. With the Mirror Matic however, I had forgotten to do this. My
biorythms are obviously all on the negative side tonight. After adding a
drop or two of water to the blank I added a small amount of 1000 grit to
the surface. The tool immediately shot out of the overarm hitting the 1000
grit canister with great force. This lost the lid and covered me in grit.
I'm trying to get rid of the grit from me while attempting to prevent the
tool acting like a discus. I finally caught it after a coupla tries and sat
there covered from head to toe in 1000 grit. Great I thought! The toggle
had also popped out of the tool and landed with the steel ball onto the
blank. We didn't notice any damage from this at the time so after much
cussing and gnashing of teeth we continued on our way grinding at 1000
grit. We let it run for an hour and took more care this time. I even mixed
a thin slurry, poured it into a bottle and used that. (Amazing what you
remember AFTER the event!) It worked very well and gave a beautiful finish
but, unfortunately, when the ball landed on the glass it had obviously
damaged it without us knowing. When we finally spotted the mark, it
appeared like a bubble under the surface. After a bit of a chin wag we
decided to go back to 120 to get rid of it. Ah well, live and learn...... I
wonder what I'll remember tomorrow night??





> Turning to face it I saw the arm in the air with the tool vacuum
> locked to the blank. Any suggestions to unlock them that don't require
> smashing it in disgust at myself? ;-)
>


Cheers

John Murray
Whyalla
South Australia
Check our web page at http://astronomy.sa86net.com ATM and M-O-M stuff.

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