On Wed, 27 Aug 2008 08:07:19 -0400, "jamesgangnc"
wrote:

You sit with a piece of thick round glass in your lap

I have read the few books on the subject, and perused the telescope
making column in Sky and Telescope regularly for decades, and I have
never heard that one. Sounds like doing it the hard way. You creat an
immovable stand, somewhere in the area of waist high, and fix the tool
to it. Occurs to me you might make the stand from concrete blocks. The
mortar doesn't have to look pretty. When finished chisel it apart, or
just break it up with a big hammer.
You walk around it while rubbing the mirror blank over it. Never heard
of any other way. You have to keep good control of the grit, or a
piece of 180 will show up while you are doing the final figuring. You
keep your clothes away from things, so that you don't transfer coarse
grit into a fine grit stage. I bet Edmund still has stuff of interest.

Casady