I prefer to use the pads as they cut down on the time to polish the glass. Get a polish first and don't worry about the fine stuff and then refine the polish to a good sphere and then figure. One of the mirror makers at the group just got his 12.5" mirror polished out in about 6 hours of polishing including the futzing around. He's now got about 1/2 hour of pitch work to make the mirror a good sphere and after that, a bit of time to get it to the parabolic state. Working with pitch, that would have been a lot longer to do for the same results.
The choice is yours but mine is use the pads. When you apply them, make sure that the tool is good and clean, especially of body oils or the pads will lift. Don't use too much CeO or the pads will fill up and not work as well.

• Re: Polishing pads - dreamer101ca - November 9, 2001 - 02:33 UTC