[SJAAboard] Fate of Mirror 28

[Rob Hawley (SJAA)]

First to be clear I am just the messenger here.  I am acting neither as an
advocate nor as a dissenter. I am rather surprised that Albert wants anything to
do with the club, but I am willing to pass along the 3rd party offer.


> I too thought a blank that size would be worth quite a bit.  I concluded that
> due to problems with the mirror that it was not worth what a good blank
>would command.

It is more complicated than that.  Raycraft's measurements imply the mirror is
still not properly annealed.  If I owned the mirror it would get another trip to
Newport Glass to sort that out.

Once the annealing was resolved, you have to deal with the astigmatism
introduced into the mirror once it was reground.  Gary's strategy might work as
long as whatever support flexed the same as the glass would.  The better
approach is to grind the back flat and then fix the astigmatism. That would
leave a mirror thinner than Raycraft was comfortable working with.

The bottom line is that this mirror is closer to a piece of raw Pyrex than a
mirror blank.  A hobbyist (or the folks at Chabot) might be willing to devote
the effort to produce a usable mirror.  As far as I concerned it has value only
because they are no longer casting new Pyrex.

BTW I picked up the cost of the failed attempt at annealing.  It was my idea for
which the club received no benefit.


>Who wants to buy it, and like Gary asked, was it the club's offer or his?

Albert did not mention the name.  I did not ask.  Albert said he would be
willing to pay something for the mirror.  The $25 was my number.  If we decided
to sell then I would let him make the first offer.  He can make an informed
purchase since Albert is fully aware of the state of the mirror. The board needs
only to set a minimum price.


My takeaway from Mark's message is that this issue needs some face to face
discussion.  I will let Albert know that we will give him an answer after the
next board meeting.



Rob Hawley