ANTIQUER,
thanks for the reply.
Yes I do know how to hand-polish surfaces, I've done it lots of times.
But to be able to get a finish that is within a thousand of an inch, you MUST start with a surface that has already been cut precisely to within a few thousands of the desired finished dimension. So how could they cut granite with such a high precision ???
In optical fabrication, it's the same thing, the lenses are machine-ground to very close tolerance from the finished dimension, and then they are polished. Here, polishing removes almost no material. That's why it can be done by hand, even on a very high precision lens. The precision level to which the base material has been cut, will determine the quality of the finish that is done by hand. There is no way around that.
Doing this kind of work on a lens is relatively easy because there are no edges to stop or catch the cutting and polishing tools. The tool can be larger than the part being machined.
But inside the large coffin, it's impossible to get a quality finish near the inside corners, unless made with very advanced machinery.
There is no way to manually cut granite to such precision, inside of a box.
Altair
thanks for the reply.
Yes I do know how to hand-polish surfaces, I've done it lots of times.
But to be able to get a finish that is within a thousand of an inch, you MUST start with a surface that has already been cut precisely to within a few thousands of the desired finished dimension. So how could they cut granite with such a high precision ???
In optical fabrication, it's the same thing, the lenses are machine-ground to very close tolerance from the finished dimension, and then they are polished. Here, polishing removes almost no material. That's why it can be done by hand, even on a very high precision lens. The precision level to which the base material has been cut, will determine the quality of the finish that is done by hand. There is no way around that.
Doing this kind of work on a lens is relatively easy because there are no edges to stop or catch the cutting and polishing tools. The tool can be larger than the part being machined.
But inside the large coffin, it's impossible to get a quality finish near the inside corners, unless made with very advanced machinery.
There is no way to manually cut granite to such precision, inside of a box.
Altair
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