surface plate.

[God mode restorations]

Afternoon all...
Just a question. I have been looking for a used surface plate.plenty on eBay. ..mostly of the ones I have seen are clean and tidy..my question is what stops them from rusting.....

 

[penfold]

A dry workshop or a rub with lanolin or an oil rag. Covers are a good idea too, I made one for mine although it's granite rather than cast iron.

 

[God mode restorations]

A dry workshop or a rub with lanolin or an oil rag. Covers are a good idea too, I made one for mine although it's granite rather than cast iron.

OK cool...I see a lot of and they all so clean in appearance. .but I no what you mean now..cheers.

 

[500e]

Cover is a must ours has a beige liner soaked in oil, fixed to a ply top with the edge(piece off an old billiard table)

 

[500e]

Bought one like this from scrap yard for £80 used it as a welding table had nicks & scrapes in it but!! the weight was over 12Cwt
The 2 small ones have covers lined with baize of a billiard table held on by the edging & impregnated with oil

 

[God mode restorations]

Bought one like this from scrap yard for £80 used it as a welding table had nicks & scrapes in it but!! the weight was over 12Cwt
The 2 small ones have covers lined with baize of a billiard table held on by the edging & impregnated with oil

That's one in your picture is on eBay. 1200 pounds...

 

[MrFluffy]

Because a really nice accurate surface plate is a thing of beauty to be loved and kept cossetted in the corner under a protective cover, not to be welded on, hit things on or left in damp conditions! You do occasionally see heathens doing these acts of barbarity too!
I am looking for a really big surface plate the size of that table one to set up as a inspection table to use with my 6ft romer arm cmm and these things are expensive, but the sheer expense of the process to produce and maintain its accuracy during production, delivery and throughout its life is why they cost a fortune. Best I can hope to afford is a granite one which don't rust and tend not to sag, but you can't use magnetic devices during setup.

 

[500e]

Yep as I said "Bought one like this from scrap yard for £80 had nicks & scrapes in it but"!! the firm that scraped it must have found errors or they would have had it re surfaced if possible, The surface was not pristine to say the least, but as a welding jig it was superb.
Dont know how old it was but most new units have level adjusters in the legs rather than jack screws at bottom

 

[penfold]

I am looking for a really big surface plate the size of that table one to set up as a inspection table to use with my 6ft romer arm cmm and these things are expensive, but the sheer expense of the process to produce and maintain its accuracy during production, delivery and throughout its life is why they cost a fortune. Best I can hope to afford is a granite one which don't rust and tend not to sag, but you can't use magnetic devices during setup.

Curiosity forces me to ask why you have a Romer; I first encountered one 20-odd years ago as a green and cabbage-eared engineering student playing at being a QA wonk, and it was impressed upon me that it cost the earth and must be babied at all times. It was only a small one though, small and portable enough to fit inside a mini bodyshell so we could confirm what we already knew, that the assembly variability on the mini body-in-white line was 'all over the shop'.

 

[MrFluffy]

I'm not having a pop at you 500e, when I see someone using a big plate that looks in good condition as a jig, or with a load of tools dossed on it, it just makes me sad. There are processes to restore the surface, granite plates are lapped to cast iron ones also. But it all costs & when time is money...
I use a machine table as a approximation for larger surfaces, and I have a 2ft camel back master, but a big granite plate or table has been on my list to santa for a few years now...

 

[God mode restorations]

Yep as I said "Bought one like this from scrap yard for £80 had nicks & scrapes in it but"!! the firm that scraped it must have found errors or they would have had it re surfaced if possible, The surface was not pristine to say the least, but as a welding jig it was superb.
Dont know how old it was but most new units have level adjusters in the legs rather than jack screws at bottom

I have been looking. There is a few on the bay.and a local place down this end that I been meaning to go and have a snout to see what they got.

 

[MrFluffy]

Curiosity forces me to ask why you have a Romer; I first encountered one 20-odd years ago as a green and cabbage-eared engineering student playing at being a QA wonk, and it was impressed upon me that it cost the earth and must be babied at all times. It was only a small one though, small and portable enough to fit inside a mini bodyshell so we could confirm what we already knew, that the assembly variability on the mini body-in-white line was 'all over the shop'.

It popped up at $350 on fleabay including shipping untested. It was basically someones junk as thats what untested really means on ebay as we all know, missing parts, leads, psu, no calibration data or standards, unsupported obsolete model etc but I know for sure it wasn't stolen as I knew who's bin it had been in, so was happy to provide serials etc to obtain any assistance and purchase parts if needed from hexagon metrology (owners of romer) although the USA mothership seems to excel in being particulary unhelpul & condensending and even basic technical spec requests were met with a insulting response or worse. Being a stubborn pig headed fool, I took it apart myself tracing circuits and identifying chips & learning how it all worked and reverse engineered the missing bits and doing some board level circuit repairs to the electronics and a helpful chap in Hexagon uk stuck his neck out and helped get me the last known calibration data and now it is within 0.02mm on a 58mm ring master.
Its not as good as a real fixed cmm, but its a damn sight more accurate than anything else I own over a 12ft circle in 3d...

 

[Maker]

I have been looking. There is a few on the bay.and a local place down this end that I been meaning to go and have a snout to see what they got.

Where is said local place?

 

[God mode restorations]

Where is said local place?

Colchester fabrications. ..me old chap goes there now and then.an old friend of his..they apparently have all sorts lying about.10 minutes up road from me so it's worth a look.