31 rows· The center will deepen during the first stage of fine grinding as contact is achieved across .
Sep 29, 2010· Mirror Grinding Machine - posted in ATM, Optics and DIY Forum: I have some interest in building a grinding machine for possible up to an 18 mirror, but something that will also do a 6 or 8 mirror. I have plans for the Mir O Matic but would like to do something a bit more modern. I have some ideas about using a AC drive and a large aluminum disk for the turntable and have made a parts list .
* When grinding a telescope mirror, you will find that plate glass takes less time to grind and polish than a mirror made from borosilicate glass. Please see the Buy Telescope Mirror Blanks page for low prices on plate glass mirror blanks.
The table below can be used as a rough guide in obtaining the grit, polish and pitch necessary for a small mirror project. Be aware that buying small quantities of is often difficult and expensive, and the first time mirror maker usually does best to purchase a mirror making kit which includes the necessary set of abrasives and pitch.
Rough grinding. This step is about making one side of the glass concave. It will give your mirror its overall focal ratio. If you make the centre deep, you will end up with a fast telescope (e.g. F/D = 4) well suited for deep sky observations. On the opposite, a shallow mirror (e.g. F/D = 8) will be performing very well on planets and the moon.
May 06, 2010· Labour is so much cheaper in China where almost all telescopes are made nowadays. Kits are available with all the necessary materials to grind and polish a mirror from Newport Glass Works. You grind the mirror blank by rubbing it on a glass tool using increasingly fine abrasives.
How to Make Your Own Telescope Mirror: [Fig 1] This is a large piece of glass a woman off Craigslist gave me. It was 40"x40" and 0.75" thick. Its what I decided to use to make the mirror. Cutting it into smaller sections can be difficult but scoring it with a glass cutter and tapping t...
Nov 06, 2013· Page 1 of 2 - 24 F/6 thin telescope mirror grinding 3/4 plate - posted in ATM, Optics and DIY Forum: A friend and I have decided to grind this as a fun yet challenging project. I have ground and polished several mirrors including a 6, 8.5, 9.2, and 14.7 quartz mirror. I have decided to take the next step with this ultra-thin setup. I know it is bordering on the edge of extremely thin with a 32 ...
This is the focus of all your work - you will turn this flat piece of glass into an accurate parabolic telescope mirror. We recommend a full thickness Pyrex blank for mirrors up to to 12" in size. Full-thickness means the diameter to thickness ratio is 6:1 (i.e. an 8" full thickness mirror is 1.3" thick).
Wooden Telescope Part 1: the Mirror: This is the first of a 2 part Instructable explaining how I built a wooden telescope from scratch. In this part, I will show you how you can build the key element of a telescope: The primary mirror.A good mirror will show you details on the moon, ...
Mar 06, 2006· Making a homemade mirror grinding machine - posted in ATM, Optics and DIY Forum: I want to make a motorized mirror grinder, any good info on this, i have a couple geared motors, low speed high torque. One more question ...will 1 1/2 shaft size pillow block bearings work good for a homemade EQ mount? Thank you, John
Grinding Machine for Large Telescope Mirrors. I designed and built a grinding machine for mirrors up to 42 inches [1.1m] in diameter. By slipping on and off a couple of belts, the machine can quickly be reconfigured for spinning work or for stroking work. The machine can also work smaller mirrors if the drip pan is moved to the fast shaft on ...
Grinding the secondary is just like grinding any other optic except in minature. I ground the secondary with the workstand and worked the tool on top just like I would grind a larger mirror. This optic is small enough that a lens grinding machine could work well.
Aug 27, 2012· The natural mirror grinding process will create a sphere. The first part of making a mirror is to grind and polish to a sphere of the required focal length. Then the mirror is parabolised, by using special polishing strokes, that changes the figure from sphere to paraboloid.
Grinding the back flat is just the first step in preventing astigmatism. The next step is the proper mirror support. Fine grind and polish the mirror face up. A thin mirror bends over the edge of the tool if it's worked on top, so the problem reduces to supporting the mirror from its underside.
Other Mirror Classes. This page lists mirror making making classes that we are aware of. Just like our Stellafane mirror class, these groups will help you learn how to make a telescope mirror, and provide guidance, instruction, and mentoring to help you with your project, and connect you with knowledgeable ATM's to answer your questions.
Now that I have several blanks made, it is time to grind and polish one into a telescope mirror and test it out. I can use one blank as the mirror and another as the grinding tool, and have a couple in reserve in case something goes horribly wrong during the grinding and polishing operations. I'll post an update once a mirror is completed.
We had communicated for year on the net. I had my 16 F5 telescope whose mirror I made and knew very well from the interferometry data. The telescope itself was still a work in progress and I think the mirror was not yet coated. The telescope had no tracking and was very unstable. It jiggled when you toughed the eyepiece.
Jan 26, 2012· Want To Make A Giant Telescope Mirror? Here's How Astronomers want increasingly large telescopes to peer into the depths of space. To build a solid telescope mirror nearly 30 feet across, you need ...
Well, that depends. Mostly on the mirror size you wish to grind, and the prices of the local market. In the US, telescope mirrors are the cheapest. A decent 6" (150 mm) mirror can be bought for under 100$. In Europe, prices are usually twice, if not three times that.
My Mirror Grinding Machine. For a long time I've wanted to build a machine for grinding telescope mirrors. Dennis Rech's M-o-M designs finally inspired me to just get up and do it. Over the years, I'd been collecting motors, gear boxes, pulleys, etc.
(3) A homemade telescope mirror can be made with more accuracy and smoothness than the mass-produced, commercial mirrors available today. Unfortunately, the cost of mirror grinding kits and pyrex blanks has increased significantly in recent years to the point where any savings from making a mirror versus buying one are minimal at best.
Dec 16, 2014· Gordon started with a 2" thick telescope mirror that weighed about 70 pounds. By thinning the blank, he's lightened the mirror by about 20 pounds! This video explains how he ground off the excess ...
Making a Refractor Telescope is a hands-on book for the amateur who has always thought making a refractor was too difficult to even consider. Since publication of Albert Ingall's first volume of Amateur Telescope Making, amateurs, using rudimentary tools, have made thousands of telescopes.