Making my 24" Mirror

Dec 99. Order blank from UL.

Jan 3 00. Blank shows up.

Jan 00 120 minutes of 220.

Feb 00 185 minutes of 320

Feb 00 75 minutes of 25u. Ugly scratch shows up. About 4" long and visible as hairline.
Keep going, hope it will grind out.

Mar 00 20 minutes of 25u.

Mar 00 75 minutes of 12u.

Mar 00 105 minutes of 5u. Digusted with scratch, going back to 12u.

Mar 00 45 minute of 12u

Mar 00 45 minutes of 5u. Scratch gone, but another smaller one appeared. Dragging tool off mirror appears to cause this. Too small to go through this again, especially if it
will just happen again. Go on to polishing.

Mar/Apr 00. 15 hours of polishing using 20" Hydrostone tool. Edge polished out fine, but center is lagging. All scratches completely polish out. There is still a 6" diameter hazy region in the center.

Work takes over for a few months. Take summer off from ATM. Drink beer, waterski.

Sep 00 180 minutes 12.5" tool polishing. Center hump reduced to 2 wave (surface) high from sphere.
Center focuses about .3 to .5 long compared to edge.

Oct 00. Decide to attack the hump directly. 10 minutes with 6" tool directly on center, and 30 minutes with 12.5" tool wide W to smooth. Center now focused .18" long compared to edge.

Another attempt with 6" tool. 30 minutes on center. Center is now .1" long compared to edge. Surface is now very zoned, but probably spherical to 1/2 wave.

3 hours with 12.5" tool to smooth out damage from small tool. Still zoned.

Use 6" tool 3T on outside and 6T on center to reduce zones.

Smooth 12.5" tool for 25 min. Flat center, edge focuses long by .15", so close enough to spherical to start parabolizing.

Nov 1 00. Start using 9" tool to try and get some correction. 25 minutes narrow W.

Nov 4 00. Very undercorrected. Edge is noticeably rolled; can be seen in chart above. Use 3" tool 3 turns and 9" tool 12 min narrow W.

Nov 5 00. A bit more corrected, and rolled edge still visible. Another 3T of 3" on edge, and 20 min 9" short strokes.

Coming along, but rolled edge still visible. Focus on the edge for a while, 5T of 3" tool overhang edge.

Nov 12 00. Didn't seem to do much. Try using 9" 20 min narrow W.

Nov 6 00. This added some correction but didn't clean up edge at all. Try 20 min 9" narrow W, 1" overhang.

Nov 19 00. Getting closer to corrected, and edge still rolled. Time to attack this before the rest of the mirror is corrected. 40 min of 3" on edge, followed by 1 T of 3" at 10" radius to try and blend. Obvious zone in mirror, so use 12.5" tool for 50 min narrow to try and smooth it out a bit. The zone is obvious in the low at 10.5" radius.

Nov 26 00. Rolled edge not only gone, but now turned up! Looks lousy - still a trough at 10.5" radius. Really obvious as a gouge at 10.5" radius. Use 20 min of 9" on center to try and increase correction and hope zone goes away.

Getting more corrected, zone still obvious. Concentrate on center with 9". Now getting corrected, and raised edge really clear. Use 20 min 9" narrow W to smooth, 2T 9" on edge to reduce it, and 2T 9" on center.

Made the thing even sharper. Use the 12.5" with edge pressure for 10 min to try and reduce it, and 20 min narrow W to smooth.

Dec 22 00. Raised edge still really clear and center dome. Use 6" tool 20 min on edge and 9" full diameter W. 1 hour 12.5" with pressure on edge. Hopefully large size of tool will reduce edge without leaving large gouge.

Dec 26 00. Looks better, but reducing the edge has overcorrected the overall figure. Edge still looks like a flat zone under Foucault. Try 40 min wide W with 12.5" to reduce correction.

Wow, getting close to tolerable! I don't believe the numbers, though, because it looks too zoney. Try and reduce the big peak at 70% zone using 3T of 3" tool.

Jan 10 01. This would be fine if I believed it! Still zoney, and raised edge. Use 2T of 3" tool on edge.

Jan 13 01. The edge reduced more than I wanted, so it's now overcorrected. Remnants of the trough still visible at 10.5" radius. Use 20 minutes of 12.5" tool wide W to try to reduce correction.

Jan 14 01. Oops, overdid it! Now undercorrected. But at least looking tolerably smooth. Do 1T of 9" on center to try and reduce it, one T long strokes straight through center to smooth it out a bit.

Jan 15. Wow! Worked perfectly!! Do I believe this? Possibly. If so, I am done. Note the remnant of the 10.5" zone.
What to do???

All of the charts are captured from the TEX program for PCs. It is a DOS program so it will also run on an Apple MAC with the PC emulation software or Linux with a PC DOS emulator.
Either TEX or SIXTESTS is recommended for running the numbers through as the programs don't mess up with the math very often.

	Nov 4 00. Very undercorrected. Edge is noticeably rolled; can be seen in chart above. Use 3" tool 3 turns and 9" tool 12 min narrow W.
	Nov 5 00. A bit more corrected, and rolled edge still visible. Another 3T of 3" on edge, and 20 min 9" short strokes.
	Coming along, but rolled edge still visible. Focus on the edge for a while, 5T of 3" tool overhang edge.
	Nov 12 00. Didn't seem to do much. Try using 9" 20 min narrow W.
	Nov 6 00. This added some correction but didn't clean up edge at all. Try 20 min 9" narrow W, 1" overhang.
	Nov 19 00. Getting closer to corrected, and edge still rolled. Time to attack this before the rest of the mirror is corrected. 40 min of 3" on edge, followed by 1 T of 3" at 10" radius to try and blend. Obvious zone in mirror, so use 12.5" tool for 50 min narrow to try and smooth it out a bit. The zone is obvious in the low at 10.5" radius.
	Nov 26 00. Rolled edge not only gone, but now turned up! Looks lousy - still a trough at 10.5" radius. Really obvious as a gouge at 10.5" radius. Use 20 min of 9" on center to try and increase correction and hope zone goes away.
	Getting more corrected, zone still obvious. Concentrate on center with 9". Now getting corrected, and raised edge really clear. Use 20 min 9" narrow W to smooth, 2T 9" on edge to reduce it, and 2T 9" on center.
	Made the thing even sharper. Use the 12.5" with edge pressure for 10 min to try and reduce it, and 20 min narrow W to smooth.
	Dec 22 00. Raised edge still really clear and center dome. Use 6" tool 20 min on edge and 9" full diameter W. 1 hour 12.5" with pressure on edge. Hopefully large size of tool will reduce edge without leaving large gouge.
	Dec 26 00. Looks better, but reducing the edge has overcorrected the overall figure. Edge still looks like a flat zone under Foucault. Try 40 min wide W with 12.5" to reduce correction.
	Wow, getting close to tolerable! I don't believe the numbers, though, because it looks too zoney. Try and reduce the big peak at 70% zone using 3T of 3" tool.
	Jan 10 01. This would be fine if I believed it! Still zoney, and raised edge. Use 2T of 3" tool on edge.
	Jan 13 01. The edge reduced more than I wanted, so it's now overcorrected. Remnants of the trough still visible at 10.5" radius. Use 20 minutes of 12.5" tool wide W to try to reduce correction.
	Jan 14 01. Oops, overdid it! Now undercorrected. But at least looking tolerably smooth. Do 1T of 9" on center to try and reduce it, one T long strokes straight through center to smooth it out a bit.
	Jan 15. Wow! Worked perfectly!! Do I believe this? Possibly. If so, I am done. Note the remnant of the 10.5" zone. What to do???