NavList:
A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
Re: Double vial horizon prototype
From: Geoffrey Kolbe
Date: 2012 Jan 11, 06:08 +0000
From: Geoffrey Kolbe
Date: 2012 Jan 11, 06:08 +0000
I have to concur with everything that Bill has said. My experience of gluing mirrors to backing plates produced the results that Bill predicted - as the glue cured, it shrank and bent the mirror. Too, because one side of the metal backing plate is effectively insulated (by the mirror) temperature variations are going to have a dramatic affect on the image quality. When wishing to grind a flat surface, it is usual to use three substrates and grind each against the other two in rotation to produce three flat surfaces. That is the only way to do it... I am not sure what is meant here by a 10 second level as the distance between the divisions has not been defined - that I have seen anyway. But never-the-less I am also not sure that practically, a 10 second level is a good idea. Levelling a ten foot lathe with such a sensitive level is one thing. But levelling a 6 inch mirror to that precision with such a sensitive level will be a real pain. And I would suspect that even the weight of the level will become a problem. Geoffrey Kolbe At 23:12 10/01/2012, you wrote: >Randy, > >I don't think it would be wise to glue the mirror to the levelling >plate. As the glue cures, the mirror may take on the contour of the >plate. A simple way of retaining the mirror would be to use three >pan-head screws, tapped into the plate just outside the periphery of >the mirror, and tightened so the heads are just short of touching >the mirror. This will prevent you carelessly decanting the mirror on >to the floor, but will not introduce any strains into the glass. > >Grinding two plates together may well give you a surface that is >smooth, but it is very unlikely to be flat to the standard required. >A 10 second level with feet 100 mm apart will comfortably detect a >difference in level of .005 mm over this distance. If you grind two >circular plates together, more likely than not one will be concave >and the other convex to match. This is quite desirable when mounting >drums of marble on top of each other, but not when you want a truly >flat surface. I am inclined to doubt, however, that the technology >of the times of the Parthenon, was able to produce steel plates of >the required size or even at all. > >I suggest you have a friend face the plate in his lathe. A properly >adjusted lathe will face very slightly concave, so the mirror will >be well supported at its periphery, which is where the feet of your >level will rest when setting level. I don't think it's a good idea >to divorce the level from the surface that you wish to level, and >suggest you stick to resting the level on the mirror face. > >Bill Morris >Pukenui >New Zealand > > >---------------------------------------------------------------- >NavList message boards and member settings: www.fer3.com/NavList >Members may optionally receive posts by email. >To cancel email delivery, send a message to NoMail[at]fer3.com >----------------------------------------------------------------