On Tue, Jan 6, 2009 at 8:12 PM, Patrick Wiggins <paw@wirelessbeehive.com>wrote:
And maybe Chuck Hards here on the list (Chuck have you made any mirrors recently?).
Not recently...not in this century, lol! These days, it's not really cost-effective to make a small mirror, but a 13" home-made mirror could be made at tremendous savings. For example, you can get finished 8" Chinese mirrors of decent quality for under a hundred bucks, but a full-thickness (6:1 diameter-to-thickness) 12.5" mirror could run you a thousand dollars, easily. Larger than that, and some serious cash can be saved- like the price of a used car! That said, figuring a large diameter, "thin" mirror isn't generally a good first project, although having said that, some people have done it and done it well. With all of the ATM experts in the SLAS and OAS clubs, I'm sure anyone seriously contemplating grinding their own mirror could easily get all the help they need.