Advice on a 16" mirror

Looking for some knowledge.
Have built Three scopes two 6" and a 10"
Have a matching pair of 16" started.(sell one for mirror money)
Have never made a mirror.
I'm after Quality but am on a budget (who isn't)
Addmit that I'm a perfectionist and making my own mirror would probably send me to the funny farm!
Thought about finding a Meade needing recoating?
Any thoughts would help.
Keep looking up
Chuck

The grinding is not the hard part! It is the figuring that takes all the skill.
If you could find a good 16" mirror that needed recoating it might be a good deal. You could get it refigured by an expert then recoated. That would cost you $700. A 16" mirror by a good name will cost $2000. So you could find a good deal that would work. The recoating is only around $200 for a 16" maybe a little more. So if it was a good mirror to begin with it is not much to recoat it.
Hope this helps.
Floyd

Start mirror work with a 6". If you don't like it, you won't be out much time and money. Then a pair of 10" mirrors for a bino... sounds doable.

Hand making a 16" is a huge job. The figuring is tough and just getting a great blank has become difficult. Not for a first-timer.

I minimized cost for a 16" by grabbing an eBay auction from Mark Cowan (Obsidian Optics.) Couldn't resist and added the Pyrex option.

Mark's been s-l-o-w to get his grinding system t-u-n-e-d, but his latest 14"ers have come out 1/22.1 and 1/11.7 MWF. Prices will go up soon. Maybe way up....

Coating by Bob Fies (Aluminum Coating in San Carlos) is a whopping $60. I told Bob that he doesn't charge enough; he just chuckled. Great guy, 100% up to his reputation.

Total's about $900 plus some shipping. Talk about winning the lottery, particularly if Mark's compulsiveness about figuring perfection gets something in the 1/11.7 -> 1/22.1 MWF range.