I doubt it would generate fumes if being ground slowly and wet, using conventional mirror-grinding tequniques. I'm sure Roger was referring to standard machining practices. I'm also going to suggest that beryllium is OK for a telescope mirror that is used at extremely low temperatures (like outer space!) but would be thermally unstable, like most metal mirrors, at temperatures close to the "civilized" range. On Fri, Dec 26, 2008 at 6:36 PM, Patrick Wiggins <paw@wirelessbeehive.com>wrote:
On 26 Dec 2008, at 18:27 , Chuck Hards wrote:
Have any of our optics "pros" on the list ground or figured a beryllium mirror? Steve? Jerry? John? I'm intrigued.
I heard from former SLASer Roger Ockey (he works at ATK) that the stuff is a pain to work with in that the fumes generated when the material is being worked are toxic.