Brought the OTA in from the garage. Also, from outside, grabbed my cleaning kit, with isopropanol. Worked in the kitchen.
Fil-thy! Could have used more light. Considered, briefly, bringing the car halogen work lights. But that would have been way too hot.
The hardest part, probably, for the whole project was getting the damned screws out. Or rather, the one frickin' stubborn screw. Man, that would have been a major... problem, if I had not been able to get the one bad screw out. One site had good advice: replace them. I will.
Grabbed my Christmas silver glitter marker! Marked the ring before removal. I don't know if it really matters for the ring...
Finally, I coaxed the final fastener. Removed the plastic retaining ring.
Wow. There it was. The corrector plate. Little cork and/or paper pads keeping it snug. The glass looked thick...
Marked the glass and the frame at three points to ensure proper placement on reinsertion.
Tried to use my little plastic orange peeler thingee as a shim but it was too thick; grabbed a tiny flat screwdriver. Tick! The plate shifted. I rocked it back and forth and out it came.
The glass is surprisingly thick! Chunky. I don't know why but I pictured the corrector lens as being very thin, so thin that it might be broken upon removal. Pshaw. This will deflect bullets!
This handsome glass was also doubly dirty. I could see the goo on the inside of the plate. Huh. So I will have to clean both sides...
Mixed up 2 litres of distilled water, 1 drop of dishsoap (you're soaking in it, Madge!), and 250 mL of 99% alcohol. Grabbed a box of surgical pads from the bathroom. And I started scrubbin' and polishin'!
Not really. First a loosening bath, then lightly drapped the solution soaked pads across sections of the plate. Inside and out. Periodic inspections showed it was improving. Didn't think until too late to clean one half inside and out and then take a snap.
Overall, it went pretty smoothly. And quickly.
No more grunge. Final bath of the remaining mixture. Then a 2 L distilled water bath. It was a very good sign watching the water run right off. Nothing to grab hold of. And then I gently dried it. Unfortunately, the Kleenex I used to dab water drops left lint behind. But I used the horsehair puffer to get rid of that.
Took a peek down the tube before reassembly. Hellooooooo!
What a lovely mirror.
Bolted everything back up.
Amazing. Not mint. Not perfect. But better. Better than bad; it's good. I can't wait to use it.
Didn't take long for cat hair to find it!
Cleaned up the kitchen. You know what they say: for something to get clean; something else has to get dirty.
3 comments:
Hello
Iv just stripped my Classic 8 down but i would not say the glass is overly thick? It looks jus like plain glass to me LOL Its a 1991 model I just wondered if you measured the thickness at al?
Andy
What thickness would you say the glass is as iv just stripped mine and the glass looks like normal glass thats all? Did you measure yours when you stripped it.?
It was at least 1/4-inch thick.
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