Nervousness.

[Mark Wagner]

25 years of fun in the box.  Any guesses?

[Stacy Jo McDermott]

12" mirror

On Thu, Jun 12, 2025 at 4:39 PM Mark Wagner <itsmar...@gmail.com> wrote:

25 years of fun in the box.  Any guesses?

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[Akarsh Simha]

Being sent for a recoat?

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[Mark Wagner]

Erasing 31 years of photon debris.

Yes.  Bout time.

Mark

"Always take the scenic route."

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[Vishal Kasliwal]

😃

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[Mark Wagner]

I'm not joking about nervousness. 

Anyone suggest insurance amount for an 18?  Planing on USPS to Ostahowski who also did my 8 and 10.  But an 18 is a different animal to put in any shippers hands.

I remember Doug Hudgins getting a 25 whacked into tiny bits in return shipping.

I have a layer of 2" soft foam and each side, and a 2" sandwiched with the mirror in a cutout circle.   I can still feel it shift.  Thinking of adding 12mm birch plywood (I have but don't need) on both sides of sandwiches mirror.

Anyone done this before?

Mark

"Always take the scenic route."

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[Akarsh Simha]

If you’ll wait a year or so I plan to drive my scope to Terry and can drive your mirror too. Maybe sooner even.

Otherwise, follow either Carl Zambuto’s packing method (with plank foam) or Mike Lockwood’s method (“foam brink” with pink panther XPS). I used the latter method when shipping my 18” mirror to OMI about 7 years ago. It went and returned fine. I followed Lockwood by the book.

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[Jonathan Lawton]

I want to recoat my 16" and I'll definitely drive it. Or send it with you, Akarsh, if you have room and depending on when you go. I might take a road trip this fall? I have some family in San Diego to visit.

Jonathan 

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[Ted Hauter]

Make a wood enclosure.

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[Alan Agrawal]

Yep, a wood enclosure is exactly what I was going to recommend.

On Jun 12, 2025, at 4:34 PM, Ted Hauter <thgo...@gmail.com> wrote:



Make a wood enclosure.

😃

12" mirror

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[pnal...@gmail.com]

When I sent Debbie’s 20” back to John Hudek at Galaxy for a recoat and a re-figure, I put it into a box with about 2” of plank foam on all sides. Then I put that entire box into another bigger box, which also had foam all the way around. John told me that he had never seen such a well-packed mirror come back to him, ever! He returned it in the same set of boxes with some kind of feathery paper over the new surface.

 

\Paul

 

From: sf-ba...@googlegroups.com <sf-ba...@googlegroups.com> On Behalf Of Mark Wagner
Sent: Thursday, June 12, 2025 3:50 PM
To: sf-bay-tac <sf-ba...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: [TAC] Nervousness.

 

I'm not joking about nervousness. 

 

Anyone suggest insurance amount for an 18?  Planing on USPS to Ostahowski who also did my 8 and 10.  But an 18 is a different animal to put in any shippers hands.

 

I remember Doug Hudgins getting a 25 whacked into tiny bits in return shipping.

 

I have a layer of 2" soft foam and each side, and a 2" sandwiched with the mirror in a cutout circle.   I can still feel it shift.  Thinking of adding 12mm birch plywood (I have but don't need) on both sides of sandwiches mirror.

 

Anyone done this before?

 

Mark

"Always take the scenic route."

 

On Thu, Jun 12, 2025, 3:30 PM Vishal Kasliwal <vishal....@gmail.com> wrote:

😃

 

On Thu, Jun 12, 2025 at 3:26 PM Mark Wagner <itsmar...@gmail.com> wrote:

Erasing 31 years of photon debris.

 

Yes.  Bout time.

 

Mark

"Always take the scenic route."

 

On Thu, Jun 12, 2025, 3:24 PM Akarsh Simha <akars...@gmail.com> wrote:

Being sent for a recoat?

On Thu, Jun 12, 2025 at 14:43 Stacy Jo McDermott <stacyjom...@gmail.com> wrote:

12" mirror

 

On Thu, Jun 12, 2025 at 4:39 PM Mark Wagner <itsmar...@gmail.com> wrote:

 

 

 

25 years of fun in the box.  Any guesses?

 

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/sf-bay-tac/CAG72LjCcFTbGOpWq6c3pXg5Qix-aSzR0wU-WyKRAPZXQJtF3XQ%40mail.gmail.com.

[Stacy Jo McDermott]

I'd use the birchwood Mark.

Better safe than sorry.

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[Richard Ozer]

Wood enclosure for sure.

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[Akarsh Simha]

Here's Lockwood's way of shipping a mirror:

https://www.loptics.com/intheshop/shop21.html

Regards

Akarsh

[Jeff Crilly]

The 15” mirror has travelled the country , probably via FedEx.

- when it was first delivered to me
- back to torus to fix the turned edge … then to the coaters
- then back to me

I used the cardboard box that came from (iirc) “United Lens” — I presume it is the box when it was a blank.

There was a bunch of hard foam cut to hold the mirror. That box is in the garage. Somewhere, in the garage.

[Ted Hauter]

Isn't everything in CA? I'd drive it and make a trip of it.

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[Mark Wagner]

Thanks everyone who chimed in.  In Lockwood's instructions I found the key to my shipping concerns: Owens Corning Foamular 150 instead of the soft foam I received from Home Depot.  I also considered simple block Styrofoam.  Any ideas on the differences for packing?

I guess I'm also over my shipping concerns after realizing I've been FedEx-ing 24x24x8 boxes all over the country for 20 years without an issue (and that was likely my inexperienced packing early on).  Now the question is insurance.  To insure for $5K is about $200 each way, USPS.  Ostahowski rather "poo-poo'd" my insuring sending my 10", I don't think I did on the 8.  I think the real risk is poor packing.

Its Friday the 13th.  Maybe hold off shipping one day? 😛

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-- 
Mark

"Always take the scenic route."

[Peter Santangeli]

If you package it well enough, I think the real risk is loss. Lots and lots of printed labels.

But in 30 years of shipping I think I've only had that happen once.

You can always insure it for less - to a price where you could 'eat' the difference if you were super unfortunate.

pete

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[Mark Wagner]

Quite sensible, Pete.  Thanks.

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[Mark Wagner]

So to close the book on this one, I went to Home Depot and cut a 4'x8'x2" of Owens Corning Foamular 150 into three 32" widths to fit into a Fit.  Job is packed and ready to go, nice and tight with no movement, Like Wall.  Name and address all over the box.

I used half the sheet, so I have enough for three 24x24 pieces (actually 32x24), if anyone is thinking of recoating.  $60 for the sheet, so half.

Can't wait, one week turnaround currently for coating (from time of arrival), FedEx same day delivery by ground.  Amazing.

[Akarsh Simha]

On Fri, Jun 13, 2025 at 3:41 PM Mark Wagner <itsmar...@gmail.com> wrote:

So to close the book on this one, I went to Home Depot and cut a 4'x8'x2" of Owens Corning Foamular 150 into three 32" widths to fit into a Fit.  Job is packed and ready to go, nice and tight with no movement, Like Wall.  Name and address all over the box.

I remember nervously using a Milwaukee knife to cut the "untenably large" 4' x 8' of Foamular to get it into pieces that would fit in my sedan at a Home Depot parking lot. As an astronomer, it's now convenient to have a bigger vehicle.

 

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[Mark Wagner]

I had fun cutting it on the floor in Home Depot.  Worker kid handed me a box cutter saying "here's a knife" (1/4 blade). I had a much bigger cutter and got to use this line!

https://youtu.be/WWl8EbNN8NM?feature=shared

Mark

"Always take the scenic route."

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[Jeff Crilly]

I recently (earlier this year?) fedexed an irreplaceable Astro-physics dew shield to Illinois.   

The FedEx guy asked if I wanted insurance and how much the part was worth.  I forget the specifics but essentially there was a paltry payout (something like $250) on loss no matter how much I payed for insurance.    I was like WTF.

I had prepared to pack it myself and was at FedEx with a labeled box and peanuts… but I opted to have the FedEx franchisee pack it in a bigger 24x24x24 box — total overkill, but likely the bigger box is harder to lose.  

I crossed fingers , and it made to Illinois, got the felt replacement, and made it back.. all good.  

-jeff