Tuesday 3 September 2013

Silvering testing continued

I tried something that should have occurred to me before now: using multiple layers of paint.  Obviously.  I get a much smoother, shinier surface with multiple coats of primer and chrome paint, 2-3 layers of each.  Now it's looking like a mirror.  It's still a very, very poor quality mirror (this brand of chrome paint will not result in a smooth chrome surface regardless of substrate smoothness) but it's reflecting more light and focusing light more sharply.  This is very encouraging.

Sunday 1 September 2013

Silvering test

I've silvered a couple of test objects.  They work as parabolic mirrors, although the main goal here was to improve my silvering technique.  The results are good enough that I think I'm ready to move on to fabricating a hand mirror.