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  1. #1
    Join Date
    Aug 2004
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    Brisbane
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    Question surface plate Brisbane

    gday.

    I'm looking to borrow some time on a surface plate, a biggish one, around 600mm long if possible. I want to scrape a #7 plane flat and my plate's not big enough.
    Alternatively does someone know where I could get three cast iron blanks to generate my own standards? Perhaps you know of a dead jointer or a machinery graveyard where I could obtain a cast iron plate to flatten?

    cheers
    Michael

  2. #2
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    Sep 2008
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    Queensland
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    far out you would have your work cut out for you lol you must be keen if you want to scrape 3 huge plates lol

    can you find some scrap glass? i think that long it would flex a lot oh it was mentioned over on HMEM that someone went to a cabinet makers shop and got an off cut of granite from in the sinks and stuff that maybe a better option
    happy turning

    Patrick

  3. #3
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    Aug 2004
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    Brisbane
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    Quote Originally Posted by new_guy90 View Post
    far out you would have your work cut out for you lol you must be keen if you want to scrape 3 huge plates lol

    can you find some scrap glass? i think that long it would flex a lot oh it was mentioned over on HMEM that someone went to a cabinet makers shop and got an off cut of granite from in the sinks and stuff that maybe a better option
    Yeah maybe I am crazy, but they only need to be 600mm long by about 100mm wide.
    I already use 12mm float glass for a stand in surface plate. It is not flat enough for anything over about 250mm long. Lol the granite bench tops, don't know why people think that it's flat. The offcut I have has variations in the many many thousandths of an inch, far worse than the float glass.

    cheers
    Michael

  4. #4
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    Sep 2008
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    Queensland
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    Quote Originally Posted by mic-d View Post
    Lol the granite bench tops, don't know why people think that it's flat. The offcut I have has variations in the many many thousandths of an inch, far worse than the float glass.

    cheers
    Michael
    really? that makes sense i mean why would it need to be ground to such a high tolerance

    have you looked in Carba Tec? they sell a surface plate really cheap maybe a bit small but i think if you can cover 60-80% of the work to be scraped then you can over lap them and still make it very flat
    happy turning

    Patrick

  5. #5
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    Quote Originally Posted by new_guy90 View Post
    really? that makes sense i mean why would it need to be ground to such a high tolerance

    have you looked in Carba Tec? they sell a surface plate really cheap maybe a bit small but i think if you can cover 60-80% of the work to be scraped then you can over lap them and still make it very flat

    Thanks Patrick, you're right I was hoping for one a bit bigger, probably the big McJing one. Just a bit short on money and space to get it atm.
    The polished side of the granite is far worse than the other, don't know if it's good enough because the texture is just wrong for a transfer plate I think..

    Cheers
    Michael

  6. #6
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    Aug 2008
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    Charlestown NSW
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    I hope this isn't a dumb question, but I'm not a precision woodworker so please bear with me.
    Does the plane need that level of accuracy? or do you want to scrape it to learn how to scrape.
    Just curious

    regards
    bollie7

  7. #7
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    Quote Originally Posted by bollie7 View Post
    I hope this isn't a dumb question, but I'm not a precision woodworker so please bear with me.
    Does the plane need that level of accuracy? or do you want to scrape it to learn how to scrape.
    Just curious

    regards
    bollie7
    Hi Bollie, I wanted to learn to scrape for one. A plane may need to be that flat over particular regions, toe, heel and front of mouth. If you think of a plane as just a blade holder, and the sole keeps it registered correctly on the wood, and if I tell you at times in the last steps of using the plane to smooth some wood that you might be taking sub 0.001" shavings, if the sole runs out by even half that much you'll get results that make you want to sit down and have a cup of tea. Also, if the area in front of the blade is higher than the heel and toe you get reduced performance due to tearout.

    Cheers
    Michael

  8. #8
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    Well, there you go. I didn't realise you could get those levels of accuracy with wood. Learn something new everyday.

    bollie7

  9. #9
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    sounds like a good project my grandfather collects tools and gave this guy a call from the paper who said he had some precision levels and what sounded to me like a surface plate but he wanted about $250 for each thing and he hasn't called back i sure would have liked to have seen them
    happy turning

    Patrick

  10. #10
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    Apr 2002
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    Brisbane
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    Mic...I did a #7 quite a while back.....it was fresh stock and .... bluntly it was like a banana.

    Ih you want to scrape it....go a head, knock yourself out.
    I did mine on the top of my saw bench with looong strips of sand paper.

    I tell you it built up my sholders....there is a lot of material to get flat in a #7.....I decided that once it was mostly flat.. that was good enough.

    now where the scraping realy come in is where the frog meets the sole....never seen a plane that didn't need some work there...I used a standard file with the end ground as a scraper.

    .....there is no point going super accurate at the sole will move a bit with age (particularly if it is a young casting) and it will flex a little with the tension of the frog & blade....Not that I've ever seen much flex in this area.

    If you end up deciding to lap it with abrasive......don't be timid with the grit and get your self a good long "flat thing" to work on.....with a #7 anything shorter than 1200mm is too short.

    I'm not sure how flat the bed is on a Sawstop machine

    cheers
    Any thing with sharp teeth eats meat.
    Most powertools have sharp teeth.
    People are made of meat.
    Abrasives can be just as dangerous as a blade.....and 10 times more painfull.

  11. #11
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    Quote Originally Posted by soundman View Post
    Mic...I did a #7 quite a while back.....it was fresh stock and .... bluntly it was like a banana.

    Ih you want to scrape it....go a head, knock yourself out.
    I did mine on the top of my saw bench with looong strips of sand paper.

    I tell you it built up my sholders....there is a lot of material to get flat in a #7.....I decided that once it was mostly flat.. that was good enough.

    now where the scraping realy come in is where the frog meets the sole....never seen a plane that didn't need some work there...I used a standard file with the end ground as a scraper.

    .....there is no point going super accurate at the sole will move a bit with age (particularly if it is a young casting) and it will flex a little with the tension of the frog & blade....Not that I've ever seen much flex in this area.

    If you end up deciding to lap it with abrasive......don't be timid with the grit and get your self a good long "flat thing" to work on.....with a #7 anything shorter than 1200mm is too short.

    I'm not sure how flat the bed is on a Sawstop machine

    cheers
    whatever mate. I'm rather more rigorous in my fettling than "gettin a good long flat thing and chewing it up with coarse grit abrasive"

    cheers
    Michael

  12. #12
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    Apr 2002
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    After I got it close I went up a few grits.......when I was finished it may not have been completly flat like my smaller planes but it was smooth and workable.

    But first time you run it on some hardwood you'll get scratces in the sole anyway....then you do some nice clean pine or meranti and the polish out again.

    with my first few and the smaller planes I was pretty fusy... (my fathers #3c sweet haart I got keen with)....when you start on 6's & 7's..particulary ones that arent flat to start with....the novelty soon wears off.

    cheers
    Any thing with sharp teeth eats meat.
    Most powertools have sharp teeth.
    People are made of meat.
    Abrasives can be just as dangerous as a blade.....and 10 times more painfull.

  13. #13
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    Aug 2004
    Location
    Brisbane
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    184

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    You're wasting your breath mate. Lapped plenty of planes, always substandard results. I only scrape now. Easier, cleaner, faster. Plently of literature out there to tell you you'll almost always end up with a convex sole if you lap. Not up to me to convince you otherwise.

    #4 restoration - Woodwork Forums
    http://www.woodworkforums.com/f152/m...planes-116963/

  14. #14
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    Sep 2007
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    Newcastle NSW
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    My two bobs worth.
    I probably know less about woodworking than I do about metalworking (which is not much) but I seem to remember reading somewhere that the base of a plane should be concave. Could this be to allow for wear?
    Russell

  15. #15
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    sounds like a good point i suppose none of the cast iron plane soles are hardened how much do they wear? has anyone measured it? i would think if it is convex of about 0.05 then that would be fine or does having it dead flat work the best
    happy turning

    Patrick

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