[time-nuts] Vibration isolation of quartz oscillators

[ed breya]

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