Stoning Or Filing Your Milling Machine Table

I use either a fine grit, FLAT Norton India stone with WD40 or a 500 grit FLAT ceramic stone with generic Windex on burs. Like was said before, slide it around gently until you feel it catch on something, and then work on that area fairly gently until the stone slides smoothly without feeling the bur any more. Wipe the table clean after stoning it, or you will continue to grind the grit into the table. Most of all, don't create scratches, burs, and dings in the first place by being careful about how and what you put on the table. Slide parts onto the table gently over the corner of the table, placing them down gently into position. Don't drop wrenches and stuff on the table, in fact, keep wrenches and other tools off the table. Also, no cutting tools, or anything else for that matter, on the table. Just the vise and the fixtures and the work, all handled carefully. There is also no bye if you have a well worn and damaged table. You can be working at making it better, or at making it worse. It is up to you. Cast iron precision surfaces are easy to damage.
 
Just wanted to add to what Bob said about being careful with the surface of your mill table. I also never lay tooling on the table. I made a small 1/4" plywood surface with two runners on the bottom side that fit into the T-slots and keep it on the table at one end just for setting tooling, etc. on. My mill table had plenty of imperfections from the previous owner when I bought it and I don't want to add to it !

Ted
 
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