Can a granite plate be TOO BIG?

[george wilson]

Yeah,my wife thought a large,thick surface plate we saw at a used machinery place would make a cool coffee table,until I told her what the thing weighed!!! It would have gone right through the floor.

 

[ranch23]

Don't listen to these guys, a guy down the road has his plate mounted on 2 TV trays!!!!!!!!

 

[Bcassel]

Too big a surface plate is like too many tools! NOT!!!

 

[hvontres]

Found a FREE granite plate while roaming St Louis craigslist but the wife thinks just a tad too big for the shop. Maybe put it on the bench and use as a surface plate.
http://stlouis.craigslist.org/tls/4434960558.html

How could 6'-6 "wide x 12'-6" long x 18 inches thick and 20,000 pounds be TOO big.

You could always offer to slice off a bit to use as new kitchen counters... and then it would be a tad bit smaller

 

[Bill C.]

Found a FREE granite plate while roaming St Louis craigslist but the wife thinks just a tad too big for the shop. Maybe put it on the bench and use as a surface plate.
http://stlouis.craigslist.org/tls/4434960558.html

How could 6'-6 "wide x 12'-6" long x 18 inches thick and 20,000 pounds be TOO big.

I don't think to many home/shop floors could handle the weight. Not sure what they had plan to use it for. A monument base? Good luck, still a nice find.

 

[middle.road]

Looks like the main table for a last century CMM. DEA & Zeiss had massive granite tops and bases, you had to pour special foundations to support them.

Back on the subject of landscaping, I went to an auction back in '85 at a company that made high speed precision motors for IBM & DEC hard drives. What an operation. Anyway they had dozens of surface plates, bench top to 4x8's. This one guy bought darn near every one of them. Sad he was going to landscape with them...

 

[jatt]

John Hasler has the right idea. With stable ground and lots of compacted sand, recon it would be a good level base to put lathes and mills on.:thinking:

Darn it, its a bit far to go and fetch.

 

[gi_984]

I've got two 24 by 36 grade A plates. Four inches thick. One has the steps/ledges. Couldn't imagine having a smaller one. Big enough do do most things I need to do. I really questioned just how big I needed when I first started shopping for a surface plate. Every time I use it I'm glad I didn't get smaller.