Granite Plate Stand

[Stustoys]

Its time for the GQ plate thread.

Well after lots of head scratching, a few hundred sketches, many hours of milling, shapping and lathing(?) its finished. (finished in the sense the the 3 point stand is complete, I still have to add some outriggers and paint. Then work out where to put it and get the plate on top)

Would have liked to get the outrigger frame welded on today but other jobs are calling.
I found out how bad my MIG welding on "non car thickness" has become

With a thanks to Greg for his efforts in getting the plates here and Phil for his input.

Stuart

[Anorak Bob]

Stu,

Am I correct in thinking the stand is about 800mm high and if so, will the legs be affixed to the floor for stability?

BT

p.s. lathing = turning

[Stustoys]

Hi BT,

Its 945mm high(adjustable to about 960mm + 100mm for the plate)
The legs wont be fixed to the floor but there will be outriggers that almost touch the floor and almost touch the plate incase it starts to tip.

Stuart

p.s. I knew it wasnt right but for the life of me I couldnt put my finger on "turning" lol

[RayG]

Hi Stuart,

Very slick

And a very clever but simple design, have you got a sketch of the adjustment mechanism?

Could the outriggers have soft pads, like a thick rubber block.

On the bottom of the plate were there markings for the mount points? I didn't look at mine, and it's too heavy to lift..

Regards
Ray

[.RC.]

Mine

[azzrock]

hi Stuart that looks great . I don't under stand the sleeves at the top.
aaron

[simonl]

Hi Stuart,

That looks elegantly simple. What size is your surface plate? It seems that there are a few of you guys that have large surface plates in the orser of about 600 - 800mm.

How does someone manage to aquire such a beast without taking out a second mortgage?!

I have been reading up on the scraping projects thread in readiness for the scraping class!

Cheers,

Simon

[Stustoys]

Back

No sure about the rubber pads Ray, they would upset the three point mout?
I havent looked at the bottom of the plate yet, I doubt there will be marks but you never know your luck.
Some more pictures to show whats going on inside.

The thread on the adjusters is something like M32 x 1mm pitch(I figured the finer thread the better. 1" ball bearings 26mm hex on the adjuster and as big as my shifter will go on the lock nuts. The ball sits in a hole with a 45deg taper, so it sits on a ring 18mm dia.

The plate is 900x600.

I'll put some more pictures tomorrow.

Stuart

[azzrock]

far out that's great. i cant help but think why is so much adjustment required?

[Bryan]

Stuart, that's pretty neat. Aaron, it's really useful to be able to level your plate.

PS: Stuart, the sleeves must be installed before the plate, so they must push down for access. Are they just a push fit on the foot, or is there some cunning way of securing them?

[Stustoys]

Hi Aaron,
There is only 15mm of adjustment, I doubt many people would have a floor that bad but I had to write down a number so 15 it is.

Hi Bryan,
Yes, they are currently a press fit. If you look at the second picture you can just make out the second piece of pipe welded inside the sleeve, its cut in three places so it has some "spring"(if you look real close you can see one of the cuts at about 3 o'clock). I cant really take all the credit for this idea, I was planning on using three bolts on each(which would have been a pain, either set it up in a dividing head so all six parts were spot on and interchangeable or just drill the things and then they would be "paired", painful either way), but when I welded the pipe piece together things moved a little and inner pipe became a bit of a triangle, I tried a few other ways to fix it, none of which I liked then realised I didn't need the whole pipe there just the three points where the bolts would be and so I could cut the rest out. I get the credit for working out that only cutting one end would be good enough.

Stuart

[simonl]

OK. Ive just had another look at one of the pics. Some reason I didn't see it last night. It's elegant but not as simple as I first thought. I like the swivel ball configuration Well done!

PS where is the cheapest/best place to purchase a granite plate maybe not as big as yours but perhaps a 600mmx 400mm or similar?

Cheers,

Simon

[Stustoys]

Hi Simon,
Thanks, it might be a little over the top given the size of the plate but hopefully I wont have to build a new one anytime soon.

These are the cheapest plates I know of in Aus.

McJING Tools Online

Stuart

[RayG]

Hi Stuart,

I like the sleeve attachment...even cleverer than I first thought...

Forget the rubber pad idea, with a 200 kg plate you would want something nice and solid.



Here's my temporary plate mounting... Levelling is done by wheeling it to a flat spot on the floor...



I'm still trying to figure out where it should live...

Regards
Ray

[Michael G]

Nice work Stuart.
For those thinking about rubber pads, what they are and whether they are needed, they are reasonably hard rubber - like conveyor belting. The purpose is two fold. Firstly it means that the support frame and the surface table don't have to be in perfect alignment. The rubber (that may only be 50mm square) will spread the load a little. A point load on a brittle material with 200 kgs on it is potentially bad news. The other thing the rubber will do is isolate the plate from the environment so that vibrations won't be as easily transmitted to the surface plate or things on it (dials measuring to microns for example)
While swivels will help the alignment issue, rubber is a simpler solution to the problem.

(Having said all that, my surface plate (16" sqr Cast iron) sits on 3 cast in feet on top of old bank cheque book filing cabinet. No levelling, no vibration absorption)

Michael