Ground Glass alternatives?

Tim Stapp

Member
Joined
Dec 21, 2012
Messages
557
Location
Big Rapids, MI
Format
4x5 Format
I believe that our own Ian Grant posted on his method of making ground glass. It may have been on the Large Format Photography Forum. I'm not sure, and too lazy to go find the link .
 

Kilgallb

Subscriber
Joined
Oct 14, 2005
Messages
817
Location
Calgary AB C
Format
4x5 Format
Who even makes ground glass anymore? I am pretty sure Satin Snow is defunct (nice glass) and Hopf is gone. Maxwell seems to maybe still be around, but hard to get a hold of.

Just curious.
Alas, satin snow does not seem to have his presence on eBay anymore. Good thing I bought a few extras. Great price and excellent quality. I believe he used a chemical etching process. Really nasty stuff and it also strengthens the glass.

I broke my first one grasping it to pull from the bag and sliced my thumb. So I built a cover plate from an old DVD BOX. It doubles to hold my bellows extension chart.
 

alanrockwood

Member
Joined
Oct 11, 2006
Messages
2,186
Format
Multi Format
If you decide to grind it yourself, and if you want it to be flat, don't grind two pieces against each other. Use three pieces and grind them against each other two at a time, changing which pairing you are using periodically. This is a known way of producing optical flat surfaces. Using only two two pieces will generally result in curvature of the surfaces.
 

Europan

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Joined
May 21, 2009
Messages
638
Location
Äsch, Switzerland
Format
Multi Format
The wise man looks for a mechanical shop with a lapping machine. There a small number of glasses or plastic pieces can be dulled in perfection for not much money.
 
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