Current mirror progress: March 1 edition
The center zone, visible in the first pic as the inner area with red on the left and black on the right, is a bit more smooth and has grown from around 50% diameter to around 80% diameter. The outer zone is still a gradual slope but it focuses light to around a centimeter or so further than the inner zone. Previously that outer zone was extremely too tall, so my goal was to reduce it, and compared to a few weeks ago it looks reduced but not gone. There’s also still 1/6" of turned down edge, yaaaaay
My pitch lap has developed regions around the edge where the pitch has fallen down and lost contact. I think the dental stone released a gas and created a bubble, which made the pitch above the bubble slowly fall down once the gas could escape.
I tried a new technique: modifying my tool by putting a small cut portion of paper over the center while pressing, so the center of the tool doesn’t make contact and wears down the center of the mirror less. It seems to be working.
Total grinding time so far: 12 hours