I didn’t get many tasks done, but the two (extremely time intensive) things I did work on - I felt pretty good about.
After some serious practice time on the lathe, I think I finally have a better grasp on lenses. I wanted to try and fix those scuff marks I made last week during my first lens attempt. I tried making the lens bigger (so it would extend past the scuff marks), then I tried adding smaller lenses where each of the scuffs were. I liked the way the small lens would overlap the large lens, creating a nice, sharp edge where they met. So I added a bunch of lenses, all clustered together. They looked a lot better than my original lens with the scuffs, kind of like a caterpillar.
I probably spent a little too long perfecting my lens-caterpillar. When I finally hopped off the lathe, I went straight to the grinding wheel to start on my cube. Each of us received a cube made in the hot shop (they look like ice cubes). We are supposed to grind those cubes down using the roughest grit (80) on all six sides. Then we use the next roughest grit (220) for five of the sides, then the next roughest (400) on four of the sides, etc. When we finish, we’ll have a cube that displays six different finishes, each increasingly smoother. The final finish is a Cerium polish.
It took me at least an hour (probably a little more) to grind all six sides of my cube on the 80 wheel. I guess the first step takes the longest, since you are also grinding the cube down so that the edges are sharp. Unfortunately, by the time I finished we had to clean up. I still have five more finishes to do on my cube and next week is our last class. Since we’ll spend next class recycling glass bottles into glasses, I have some homework to get to before then – grind away!
