The Refiguring Process
| A lot of people have been asking about my refiguring service so I'm going to try and cover the basic questions here and give a good overview of the process. |
| The first question you have to ask yourself is why do you think you need refiguring? Obviously if you are getting bad results in basic star testing (soft focus point, wildly different inside/outside focus patterns, astigmatism, ect...) then there's not much question about it, the mirror needs help. In other cases it may not be so obvious. In some cases the images may seem ok and nothing really stands out in casual testing yet the scope just never seem to deliver that edge that you've seen in other scopes of similar size. In that case the question is less clear to the point that accurate bench testing is really the only way to tell what you have in hard numbers. In that situation the best thing to do is simply send the mirror in. All of my refiguring jobs start with a full testing run so we'll both know exactly what we're starting with. We can discuss the results and If the mirror looks good I can simply send it back and you'll know exactly what you have. In this case you'll only be charged for return shipping and insurance plus a small $25.00 fee for testing. |
| If it's decided to go ahead with refiguring then the test data is investigated further in order to find the best course of action. In some cases it's possible to work with the existing figure and bring the surface into specification, especially if the mirror has a good edge and is under corrected. However, in the vast majority of cases the figure is reduced all the way back to a sphere and then corrected from there. That is often the only way to deal with multiple defects and to develop a smooth surface. I work to the same production standard for refiguring as I do for new work so in the end, the result is the same. |
| Once the job is complete but before coating, a final round of testing is done so you'll have a comparative "before and after" look at the surface. |