The nicest optical bench I've ever seen in person, was in one of our
labs many years ago. It was a huge, precisely flat polished granite slab
about 6-8" thick, about 4x8' or maybe 5x10', mounted on active-leveling
pneumatic bladders. It was loaded with thousands of threaded inserts,
uniformly spaced on a grid, for mounting optical devices and equipment.
There are lower-grade type platforms available, commonly called "optical
breadboards," that are made from thick sheets of aluminum or stainless
steel, that are formed into a fairly rigid 3-D structure with a
honeycomb interior bonded between the outer sheets. They likewise have a
grid of threaded holes or inserts. I have a few small ones of these,
salvaged from old equipment. They are about 16" square and 3" thick,
with a grid of 1/4-20 threads on 1" centers.
Ed
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