An Ultimate Hand Scraped Surface Plate

[jmhoying]

I was at a shop today that does machine rebuilding. I was admiring the awesome surface plate that they use and got a few photos. The base is from a Minster Machine punch press and the top is 6" x 4' x 8' cast iron, hand scraped to with 4 tenths.



They also had a Bridgeport that they just finished rebuilding to original Bridgeport specs. (other than paint).
How pretty is this table and ways?


Jack
Fort Loramie, Ohio

 

[Ulma Doctor]

Wow!
both projects took someone a lot of time!
beautiful work
thanks for sharing

 

[Franko]

Thanks for sharing that, Jack. That is an awesome chunk of iron!

Was 4-tenths a typo, or did you mean 4 ten-thousandths?

 

[T Bredehoft]

One would assume that 4 tenths meant .0004 inches.

 

[Tony Wells]

Basic UoM for machinists is one thousandth of an inch, so "a tenth" is assumed to be 0.0001 inch.

 

[jmhoying]

Thanks for sharing that, Jack. That is an awesome chunk of iron!

Was 4-tenths a typo, or did you mean 4 ten-thousandths?

Yes, I meant to say 4 ten-thousandths.
Jack

 

[Franko]

I thought that might be the case, Jack. I just wanted to make sure. Thanks for the new (for me) info on machinist lingo.

 

[EmilioG]

Awesome. That is one solid heavy table. The one I used at work is the same size but granite.
That is a monumental piece of work in both photos. Thanks.

 

[Dubbie]

How would you even scrape something that large? What would you use as a reference? Enlighten me please!

 

[jmhoying]

How would you even scrape something that large? What would you use as a reference? Enlighten me please!

This company rebuilds large punch presses, so they probably didn't have much problem working on it. In their shop, they had quite a few large precision straight edges (4" x 4" x 8', etc.). ,so that is probably what you would use for something like this.