One set of tooling that could be used for fast or odd shape optics.
Here is a simple drawing of the tooling used to polish fast optics or free form, like Preshaped-Schmidt correctors or such.
The rubber sheet is natural, thin to allow it to curve easily. The tooling is made out of plastic, with a ring holder for the
rubber. To shape the rubber to the curve or free forum optic, buck shot is used, steel or brass. The grinding
is done with brass or stainless nuts or washers, from 4-40 to 10-32 in size. They are glued using Barge or CA.
Polishing pads are cut to small shapes, square, or punched circles. Glued using Barge. The pattern is of
your choosing. These worked well for fine grinding, using 25 to 5 micron. Polishing is with Cerox or such.
It must be kept wet at all times, it driers out quickly. The tooling has bearings for rotating, U-joints are added to allow
bending for fast optics. A slow speed motor on top can be added to force rotation.
Yes the pads and nuts need to be replaced often. You can "rough polish" 80% of the fast mirror then switch to pitch to remove
any orange peel or such. Thought this would be of interest.
Starry Nights
Attached Files
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Rubber tooling 10.pdf 40.76KB
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