To: 
Reply-To: "Scott Berfield" 


Got some new polishing compound from Salem and suddenly progress on the
12+" is very noticeable. In three hours this weekend I got to the
point of passing the laser test (as defined by having the same or better
appearance as a laser on my best, clean Canon camera lens). The shape is
currently oblate with a slightly low edge and a very smooth surface. I
still have a couple of edge scratches, though they are not nearly so
visible in the Foucault test as they were before. I plan on another couple
of hours of polishing to really get it nailed and to hopefully lose more of
the scratches and get closer to a sphere before moving on to figuring. But
it was incredibly gratifying to see the surface just disappear under the
laser!

Anyway, the polish used is a pre-mixed slurry from Salem. The sales-person
called to tell me that they didn't have any small quantities of their usual
Cerium slurry, and would I like to try a sample bottle he had handy of a
very fine cerium that others had had some success with. It is VERY fine
grain and pure white (and appears to nearly impossible to get off your
fingers once it dries, but that is another story). The amazing thing with
this stuff is how silky it feels when polishing, how fast it polishes, and
how smooth the surface is that it leaves. The combination of fast action
and smooth surface really surprised me. The only downside at all is that
the lap gets very hard to move as contact gets tight and the compound gets
thin - I snapped off the bolt holding my turntable down at one point!

Anyway, this stuff is great and highly recommended. I will get the numbers
off the bottle and post them here later on.


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Don't worry about people stealing your ideas. If your ideas are any good,
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