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Hi Tom
As others have said, there is much pleasure in building your own telescope, if you don't want to push glass yet but purchase finished optics and build your tube and mount around it , there are suppliers of refractor objectives and mirrors aplenty. Here in Oz, Mathew Lovell of Telescopes and Astronomy, in South Aust. as well as others I'm sure, can supply all your mirror making needs as well as finished mirrors and refractor lens.
With the price of GSO / Skywatcher type scopes these days , there isn't much cost saving in making your own ( just satisfaction ) unless you want to make your scope to more demanding specifications, mirrors of better than 1/10 PV , lens of better than 1/ 6 PV ( on all 4 surfaces for a doublet ) and achieving a Strehl ratio of 0.9 or better, 0.95 is almost as good as you can get.
Most of the books mentioned by others will explain what is required in the polishing an figuring of the lens or mirror to achieve an acceptable outcome for performance under the stars. Whatever course you decide to take, enjoy the ride and don.t rush, take your time , near perfection only takes a little more patience to achieve.
Happy ATMing
Jeff
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