# Set Up an Optical Flat



## ddickey (Dec 18, 2018)

I have to do an assesment of nine tasks. One of the ones I chose was to set up and use an optical flat. 
Can anyone help me with that?


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## Boswell (Dec 18, 2018)

you might check out this document about how to use an optical flat as a place to start.  
https://www.gagesite.com/documents/Metrology Toolbox/How to Measure Flatness with Optical Flats.pdf


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## ddickey (Dec 18, 2018)

Thanks a bunch.


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## mmcmdl (Dec 19, 2018)

I went down to the Kaydon plant recently and saw how they measured their seals for the jet engines . They were measuring in "bands" , of which I didn't understand .  This may be an interesting thread .


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## ThinWoodsman (Dec 19, 2018)

I purchased a small optical flat as a sort of self-xmas-present, having read about them in Foundations of Dimensional Metrology. Looking forward to learning how to use it when I'm next snowed in.


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## eugene13 (Dec 19, 2018)

Is this the flat that uses a helium light?


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## ThinWoodsman (Dec 20, 2018)

More or less - light has to be monochromatic. Should be possible with the right LED light, still need to sort that part out.


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## Bob Korves (Dec 20, 2018)

Tom Lipton of oxtoolco on YouTube has some good videos on using optical flats:
https://www.youtube.com/user/oxtoolco/search?query=optical+flat


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