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Sunday, April 18, 2004 | |
| Complete Web Site | The whole Web site was rewritten in preparation of moving to a new server. The new underlying code now requires a CSS compliant browser since style sheets are used extensively to ease site design changes in the future. |
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Thursday, July 24, 2003 | |
| Modular Optical Tester Design | Updated the article with the latest design files. The files are now available for download. |
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Wednesday, May 14, 2003 | |
| Making A Pitch Lap | The full text description of my method of making pitch laps is finally complete. This is a variation of the Hot Channel Cutter method. I have used this method with only a few changes for the past 25+ years. |
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Saturday, April 19, 2003 | |
| 14" F/4.5 Mirror Log | The illustrated mirror making log for my 14" project has been updated with my latest working notes. Pending additional testing, the mirror may now be finished. (This is a long article. The page's text and 100+ thumbnail images total about 685 KB.) Work on the mirror is ongoing. |
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Wednesday, April 09, 2003 | |
| Testing Quality Of Polish | A new article describing the three most common amateur tests for determinig when polishing is complete for a mirror surface was added. Described are the methods of direct inspection, the sun test, and the laser test. |
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Wednesday, March 19, 2003 | |
| Modular Optical Tester Design | This construction article describes how to build a compact, versitile head for your optical tester. Combine this with any mechanical base you chose and you have a tester that easily converts from Foucault to Ronchi to Wire testing in less than a minute. Other tests may also be supported by building specially modified versions of this basic assembly. |
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Tuesday, October 01, 2002 | |
| Links Page | I updated some of the URLs on the links page to make sure they were up to date. |
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Saturday, July 20, 2002 | |
| Fast Grinding and Polishing | This article has been updated to describe the results of using fast polishing techniques on a 14" F/4.5 mirror. |
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Monday, July 01, 2002 | |
| Smithy CB1220XL Lathe/Mill/Drill | The review of the Smithy CB1220XL combination lathe-mill-drill was updated and completed. In addition to general experiences with the Smithy 3-in-1, information on how to chose a combination metalworking machine by considering your use is included. |
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Thursday, April 25, 2002 | |
| The Matching Ronchi Test | Updated article with additional link to Peter John Smith's new comprehensive(!) set of articles covering all aspects of Ronchi Testing. This is a must-read site for anyone interested in the Ronchi Test. |
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Monday, February 18, 2002 | |
| The Matching Ronchi Test | Added a link to Peter John Smith's Ronchi Patterns Page. This page deals with detecting turned down edge on a mirror while using the Ronchi Test. |
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Tuesday, February 05, 2002 | |
| The Matching Ronchi Test | Two additional links were added to the Ronchi Testing resources section of the article. Links now point to Peter John Smith's RonchiEstimates program for estimating mirror error magnitudes based on the Ronchi Test and Ricardo Dunna's RonchiW simulation program. |
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Friday, December 28, 2001 | |
| Rebuilt Web Site (Again) | The Web Site was replaced once again to fix some navigation problems. It now looks like everything is working properly, though not all links have been verified. Notify me if you notice any broken links. |
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Sunday, November 29, 2001 | |
| Rebuilt Web Site | The whole Web Site was rebuilt following a server crash. Hopefully everything will be back up in another day or so. Please let me know if you notice any broken links or missing images in any of the articles on this site. |
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Sunday, November 11, 2001 | |
| Fast Grinding and Polishing | Added article describing specialized grinding and polishing techniques. These techniques are not normally used for a beginner's mirror. They are used to speed the process on larger mirrors. |
| Simulating the Ronchi Test | Updated article formatting for easier readability and added javascript to open figures in separate window. |
| Making a Tile Tool | Updated article formatting and added javascript to open figures in separate window. |
| The Matching Ronchi Test | Updated article following peer review. |
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Thursday, November 01, 2001 | |
| The Matching Ronchi Test | Added and updated article which serves as a guide to the beginner in learning how to set up, use, and interpret the results of the Matching Ronchi Test. (Originally added 10/28/2001.) |
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Thursday, July 12, 2001 | |
| Understanding Foucault | Added guest article by David Harbour oriented towards beginners explaining how the Foucault Test works. |
| Setting Up The Dall Null Test | Completed the second version of this OSLO-EDU tutorial that tells how to set up and simulate the Dall Null Test. This second article uses the new menu structures of OSLO-EDU version 6.0 and later. |
| Smithy CB1220XL Lathe/Mill/Drill | Uploaded a partial review of the Smithy CB1220XL 3-in-1 combination Lathe/Mill/Drill. The remainder of the article will be added as I find the time. |
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Sunday, July 01, 2001 | |
| Web Site Server Change | The whole Web Site was moved to a new server. The URL has remained the same. Much of the site HTML was changed in the move, though should appear much the same as before. Even though all pages appear to have new dates, little editing was done to article text. There may still be missing pages or broken links. If you find any, please report them to me. |
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Saturday, March 24, 2001 | |
| A Digital Readout Caustic Tester | Added twelve additional photographs of the tester so that some other details of construction may be more clearly seen. The added photographs are on a separate page linked at the bottom of the main article page. |
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Sunday, March 18, 2001 | |
| Printable Article Index | Added printable Adobe Acrobat versions of some of the articles available on this site. These files may be downloaded for reading or printing off-line. |
| A Digital Readout Caustic Tester | Added a short article by Tom Lum on his innovative digital readout caustic tester design. Tom will write up a full construction article to be added later. |
Friday, February 09, 2001 | |
| Tile-On-Plaster Tools | Added detailed description of one method for making a tile-on-plaster tool. |
| Making A Pitch Lap | Added a pictorial article on making a pitch lap using the Hot Channel Cutter method. A full description will be added later. |
| Setting Up The Dall Null Test | Added OSLO-EDU tutorial on how to calculate optimized Dall Null Test setups. (Currently only valid for OSLO-EDU version 5.4.) |
Sunday, September 10, 2000 | |
| Simulating the Ronchi Test | Peer review has been completed on this article describing how the Ronchi Test may be simulated on a personal computer. |
Wednesday, June 07, 2000 | |
| Web Site | The whole Web Site was updated with new HTML code utilizing SSI. These were all internal structural changes designed to make the site easier to maintain. Some of the basic navigation pages pages are still under construction. This site is almost ready now to completely replace the previous AOL URL. |
Friday, June 02, 2000 | |
| Simulating the Ronchi Test | An article describing the algorithms and techniques involved in simulating the Ronchi test on a personal computer was added. |