Polishing Pads?

[Orion]

A question for all you mirror makers...has anyone used pads to polish a mirror?
A great read on cloudy nights all about this http://www.cloudynights.com/ubbthreads/showflat.php/Cat/0/Number/2151093/page/0/view/collapsed/sb/5/o/all/fpart/1

[Rod]

Hi Ed,

Yes I've used them several times. They are much quicker. You get a fair bit of surface roughness with them but switching to a pitch tool for the final stages fixes that.

Rod.

[Orion]

It seems to be the way to go.

How is your 14 inch nasmyth cassegrain coming along Rod?

[Rod]

Hi Ed,

I haven't done much on it directly. I have been building a bartels stepper drive for my 12 inch newt. When it is finished I plan to use it also as the platform for the cassegrain. The main mirror for the cassegrain is polished out (with pads!). I used black vitrious ceramic (BVC) for the blank. It polishes (and grinds) very fast. I still need to figure it. The secondary is polished but the figure is not quite right.

How are you finding yours?

Rod.

[MrB]

Echoing Rod's comments, used them years ago for a 6", made things a whole lot easier but still need pitch. Made it so easy infact, that I didn't mind spending the time chasing those last hard-to-remove scratches around till they disappeared.
I reckon their time saving benifits would really shine thru on bigger mirrors than my 6" ;)

Tile(on plaster) tool with pads:

[Orion]

Thanks for the info guy's I haven't used them yet and by the looks of it it would be worth while having a go next time around.

Rod, my scope is going fine the slowest part is figuring the mirror.