Thread: Granite Surface Plate

Pretty damn rare these surface plates then huh?

Hare and Forbes, Tooling online or Comag

No real suggestions but I bought one from Carba-Tec. I did have to wait about 2 months for it to come into stock but for its price, its an amazing level of flatness. They come with a lab report on the surface deviations. They aren't what you would call a high turnover item and as a result will be hard to find in stock anywhere, but keep persevering! Best of luck with your search.

Tom.

Ditto - got mine from Carbatec Sydney, and I think it took them 4 weeks to get it in for me.

Worth the wait, very happy with it. Considering the weight of the thing, I don't think you'll be buying one from anywhere interstate.....

Yeah I was kinda resigning myself to waiting for CarbaTec. Only another few weeks or a month

Thanks for the responses though.

Have you rung C-tec and pushed them to look?

IME their stock database not infrequently doesn't reflect what's actually in stock.

Ern - I think that's being kind to them......

In my experience the relationship between Carbatec's computer and the real world is tenuous at best. I like to regard their stock in mathematical terms.....i.e. real and imaginary parts.

"Yeah, the computer says we've got (4 + 3i) of those"

Or, for the movie buffs (with apologies to the trekkies out there....)

"Store Trek III: The Search For Stock"

LOL.

That's why I ring and order by phone these days. I want the item to be in front of the counter jumper before paying.

Another option for Tools4Me might be a flat steel plate or kanna. Not sure where you source one of those outside Japan but mech engineers must use flat steel reference plates ... ?

You know, I'd really like to test one of these guaranteed flat boys against an offcut from a kitchen bench (of which I have several - I carted 10 of the bastards through 8 house moves before I found a use for one). For flat sanding I use a piece of 750x500 black heavy mother and it works a treat.

I don't bother with them for plane blades or chisel sharpening - Nicholson smooth file is good for that.

What?

Yeah, my granite surface plate is hopeless - it has a bloody great dip in the middle that is almost 2 microns deep........

I can almost see it with the naked eye

Originally Posted by Mr Brush

Yeah, my granite surface plate is hopeless - it has a bloody great dip in the middle that is almost 2 microns deep........

I can almost see it with the naked eye

That's not quite what I meant MB. More the other way around - I wonder just how far out of flat a normal non-reference piece of granite can be?

If you want something "fairly" flat, I'd say 10mm float glass (just by the very way it is made) would be much flatter than a lump of granite benchtop which has been ground flat.

The float glass is expendable - I use it with loose coarse silicon carbide grit to flatten sharpening stones. Once it gets a bit worn, throw it out and grab a new piece.

The granite surface plate is a reference for checking/measuring flatness in conjuction with a dial gauge and feelers - I wouldn't dream of grinding anything on it.

Was in CTec in Adelaide this morning and saw that they have a granite plate sitting there in stock. Might be able to phone an order in at the $25 expense to have it shipped.
The Adelaide store has a lot of stock as clearance items too. Oval turning gadget at $1000 off and cheap vermec faceplates and things. Picked up a cheap 1200 king with a chip out of a corner for half price. Doesn't bother me as it will be my GP knife stone. But enough off topic ravings.

Tom.