Lapping my Granite Surface Plate to AA Grade
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 10 มี.ค. 2021
- This video shares the processes we took to both measure my granite plate using differential levels, and lapping it into a AA grade spec based on ASME specifications. I am extremely happy with the results and it will exceed my needs! Big thanks to my buddy Lance www.26acremaker.com who helped me with this project.
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Abom Adventures / @abomadventures - วิทยาศาสตร์และเทคโนโลยี
Lance is one of the most honest men I have ever met. He is a perfectionist. He has taken 6 or 7 Scraping Classes and in my 40,000 students over 40+ years of training, Lance is in the top 5. I have had Lance assist / help me teach classes!. I am so lucky he came to my classes where he met Adam at a class we had at Keith Rucker's. Both Adam and Lance are A+ in my book!! Part of my scraping family. Anything Lance tells you or shows you is SPOT ON!!!
I worked in a 2A lab for the USAF for 12 years. This is exactly how it is done. Great job!!! Let the haters hate.
Underrated comment
Hi Ben, Can we use sand paper with foam pad instead of diamond dust? I think abrasive particles in sandpaper won't be charged into the plate.
It's almost like a person can be an expert in multiple areas given actual training and education
Lol! Dunno why that made me lol but it did 😆
Ya think?
Well.......duh
@@demonknight7965 Now that you question it, nah. A bit silly to think critical and structured engagement is needed for expertise. Clearly reading an article or watching a video would suffice for the average welder or truck driver to become an expert in something like biopsychology or nuclear chemistry.
@@custos3249 or vice versa...
Phenomenal. Just in case anyone needed a reminder, a human hair mics’ in at an average of 4 thousands (.004) Adam’s plate is 65 millionths (.000065) from the highest point to the Lowest. That’s 61.5 times thinner than a single hair. 🤯
1/10th of a blonde one.
@@matthewerwin4677 lol
Guess people forget that the machinists trade has been around far longer than the certification process. So someone had learned how to do and do it right to even know how to set the standards. The negativity in people anymore is incredible. But those who can’t always want to try and bring those that can down to the only sloppy standard they understand.
🇺🇸🦅🌏⚓️🇺🇸
That too mean dude,, mayb human need time n complex proses to know each other better. Existence of a process and progress :)
@@rokoksekerat88 huuuuh
"You've just clicked on a video about making an already flat thing, into a more flat thing."
ToT
And watched it get flatter for almost an hour.
Insert space time reference here that goes way over my head.
TOT!!
It is precisely this kind f dedication which has brought us the amazing technologies we have today. Just think how perfect a CPU chip ha to be while implementing a system with billions of transistors, while all have to work perfectly to allow us to use computers and related tech today. The degree of flatness the ancient Egyptians achieved would scare you, and that is thousands of years ago. We cannot be outdone by such an ancient civilization.
@@machineshopbasicsforthehom2291 non mm mmmmmmmm
Whether Lance is a Veterinarian or a Baker or a Barber is irrelevant.... His pursuit of perfection is what counts!!! Keep up the awesome work Lance, and thank you Adam, for showcasing Lance's talent, and passion for a true artform!! 👍🏻🥃
It’s curious that Lance should feel the need to defend his expertise. He is clearly an intelligent gentleman, his varied talents show that. Why do folk think that to be paid for an expertise makes one more competent? In fact to do some jobs day in day out can take the edge of the pleasure of doing the best job possible. Where would American creativity be without gifted amateurs talents?
There a strange phenomenon in the modern world where we judge a person's skill by the size of their salary and their worth by their labour.
Doing one thing in a field isn’t really expertise. You could teach almost any one how to do one thing and do it well. Expertise is knowing the entire relevant field and knowing how to work with different things to get the same result. I’m sure lance could teach one of us to make a very specific incision for a specific procedure on a specific breed of dog. But that does not make me an expert. If someone brings in a different breed or a dog with other issues, I very quickly will lose my ability to work in that field.
It has nothing to do with Americanism, I don’t know why everything has to have some political or nationalistic bent to it. It has to do with the definition of expert vs technician.
@@antonio97b I disagree. You are basically stating that someone cannot be an expert at lapping, as if only fields with a certain level of depth can have experts. By definition an expert is : a person who has a comprehensive and authoritative knowledge of or skill in a particular area. There are many skills which do not meet the depth criteria you put forth, yet someone can have far more comprehensive knowledge of that skill than someone else, but I guess in your opinion they would not be an expert.
@@Sgtassburgler The key word is "comprehensive". Does he know how to lap all materials with differing properties? Does he know how to lap thing that are too small for his fixture or things that are larger than what that fixture can handle? If something goes wrong, can he correct it?
Lance is amazing. What a treat to watch someone who strives for perfection and loves doing it.
Thank David
Awesome guys.👌🏻 A lot of patience with this kind of work.
Enjoyable to listen to Lance! He’s sharp!
Can you come be my vet Lance?
This is why TH-cam is so great, very specific, very technical videos. Thank you both!
I don't know how i'm going to explain to my girlfriend tomorrow that a relaxing one am activity is watching a one hour video of two men leveling out a granite plate and how important an object like that is to modern civilization
I worked in the Metrology Lab at a helicopter company in the 80s. We used to joke about what is Mill Spec? It's where you measure with a micrometer, mark it with a piece of chalk then cut it with a hatchet.
You guys to true professionals in what you do. You did a great job and thank you for showing how it's done.
Sorry, I've been working in the aviation industry my entire adult life, and this is definitely not true.
@@jacktheaviator4938 I've seen "mil spec" equipment that was nothing more than chinese made consumer electronics tossed into a ruggedized case with bulkhead connectors. In some cases mil spec is absolutely garbage that was made to bilk the US government for easy money. It is not a standard of excellence like so many people think.
I don't know what "mil-dpec" equipment you have been looking at, but in the aerospace industry, the specs are higher than anywhere, period. And the comment I replied to was talking about a helicopter plant, in an aircraft plant, there is no such thing as "good enough." That's why the best of the best work in the industry, because it's an environment that doesn't accept mediocrity.
@@jacktheaviator4938 the 80s were very different from today
@@jacktheaviator4938 aerospace and nuclear...
"let me show you what true level really is Morty..."
I was looking for this comment 😆
People will always troll you. I am a Combat Veteran, FAA certified A&P mechanic, large business manager, and Registered Nurse in an ICU. I mine, cut gems, make jewelry, am a member of a college engineering club, Nobody is ever just 1 thing and you don't have to earn a living at it to become proficient. Ignore trolls and do what you do.
Adam and Lance. I really liked this video because. when I was in the helicopter component overhaul industry , Our plates had to be inspected min. off once a year. I saw these guys come in, and do this just like you did lance, and watched them lap also, but I never knew what they were doing when they took these readings. So this was very educational for me even at 72 years old , I now know what they where doing. Adam& Lance Thank for showing this I really learned something. Yes we also used Windex, to clean the plates before we took measurements.
Lance is a class act. I love when he makes it into video's. That plate for 50 bucks, now AA is just awesome. Lance has some great knowledge and passion for doing this. And he actually enjoys it. Great hobby.
This is the real life version of Rick’s “True Level”
😄 This was the first thing I thought of too
Glad I'm not the only one to think of that.
Ive stood on a stone that came in at AA grade flat, within .0000148° of perfect level. It actually feels like it factory resets your entire equalibrium. Its at a lab in Switzerland
Level and flat are different things
There's the term for it: "credentialism". People these days rely too much on someone's diplomas and certificates since they are often incapable of assessing the actual substance of the work done or the logic presented.
Some who are obsessed with credentials have become known to me as wokels, and wokel yokels.
I rather think this tread got started by some one who is in the wrong job. If they have spent for ever getting qualified then plainly it’s not their forte!
@@johnsherborne3245, that happens too. Although, I've seen some solid professionals who are perfectly capable of getting great results, but still believe that the only proper path to that point is formal training, certification, all those things. Definitely, being self-taught isn't for anyone and nobody says that everybody can or should do that. But people who successfully taught themselves or learned their trade in some informal way definitely exist on the same level as those who were trained traditionally.
I agree to some point but there are reasons for certification. What if some deadly failure was a result of bad tolerances and your tools weren’t calibrated by a certified company?
It’s chain that needs to work.
However I feel like a certification will become more and more watered down since it doesn’t mean you know what you're doing.
I also think certifications is a tool used to “save” domestic workers.
Logical fallacy of appeal to authority. Those fraught with this idea are the problem with modern society. These morons are the kind who worship career politicians and bemoan business owners.
You do realize that not all of us find this boring. It's really pretty interesting and part of a world far away from the types of things I do in my "shop".
The creation of a truly flat surface was one of the key enablers of the industrial revolution. :-) This is awesome to watch.
I have had the pleasure of seeing the "gauging lab" at a GM auto factory. It was a "clean room" that no one was allowed to enter except the certified technicians. The oil on your had would ruin their plates. It had large window so you could see the surface plates. It had an air-lock, and a huge HVAC to make absolutely sure that the interior of the room had "adequate climate control." The instruments in the room were used to calibrate the gauges that were used to calibrate the gauges that were used to check the parts being made.
Most people have no clue and it's really sad. Given what we do nowadays we should make way more money. Literally everything would stop if all machinists said nope. It would take weeks not years for inventories to run out and start affecting the world as a whole. You can't just replace these workers as a whole. It would be akin to letting the power go out worldwide. It's now or never before we're all tortured slaves. We're already slaves.
@@drewjohnson4794 extreme tolerances and the ability to measure them is what makes modern society possible
74 millionths! .74 tenths! Across a 2'*3' surface! That's amazing.
He got it better than that at the end 65 millionths. I'm a metric user, I had to look that up, it's bacteria-sized variation across that 2'*3' surface about 1.65 microns, impressive stuff!
Yea, that's incredibly good, amazingly good. Especially when consider myself lucky if I can get away with 3/10ths variation over 12"... Lol
It's funny how people forget that human beings have to be capable of producing results worthy of creating human standards before those standards are created to ensure the results.
It's like there's a confusion in the mind that replaces the standard itself with the level quality the standard ensures.
Lance definitely knows his stuff! The videos with him are great because they really show the true “math” and “art” of precision machine work!
Ignore the comments. I get told at work that I’ve got OCD because I like things to be done properly and in a certain way. The person who says this is known to everyone else as Captain Slapdash. Kinda says it all really.
I get so tired of people "finding" fault in what you do. Love the channel, love the detail, love the care that you and your friends put into your projects. Keep up the great work!
Looks to me like Lance is a natural at this, and has the money to buy what you need for it so yeah I would definitely trust him.
I'm sorry, but it takes REAL money to chase precision. You can't buy a couple grand worth of used portable equipment, and think you are actually making progress. I am AL2A certified, and our lab has 15 million dollars worth of equipment. If his equipment has ever been out of a temp controlled environment, you might as well throw that junk away. The measuring gear he is using isn't certified, and was probably something he picked up because it had reached it lifespan and someone didn't trust it. Precision is a fickle mistress, and there is no such thing as a hobbyists who can actually make a surface truly flat, in the micrometer world, and no hopes of breaking into the nanometers realm
@@jacktheaviator4938 just wondering, if he didnt make any real progress making that surface plate better what did he make?
@@jacktheaviator4938 cool story
I spent 37 years in a US Army depot calibration lab as a technician and as a supervisor. We used a Mahr-Federal electronic differential level system to calibrate several surface plates every three years. Before that system came along, we used a collimator and mirrors to measure the flatness. That was much more difficult. Occasionally, we hired a contractor to come in and resurface the plates that didn't meet the specifications.
Lance is a very smart man, probably does a better job than a company in the business would do.. he takes his time, its not just another job to him..
Really appreciate the insight and mechanics behind surface plate magic. Between Tom, Robin and Lance the science and art of flatness is better understood and appreciated. Kudos!
Lance buddy I love your intro about yourself. I’m one of those guys that enjoys learning and doing things that are outside their professional discipline. Occasionally I get people who give me a hard time similar to what you might occasionally get.
Don’t let it bug you. People go their because they don’t understand how someone could learn so many complex subjects in such depth.
Lance is good about the comments and does not let the negative criticism get to him. He’s simply trying to help people watching understand where he’s coming from and why he enjoys what he does. 👍🏻
I think that all reasonably perceptive people could not help but catch this "I'm good at learning" about you Lance.
Thank you both for sharing this.
Never underestimate the capacity of a dedicated, intelligent person to break into any field or discipline in their own time.
Great video Adam. I really don’t understand why some folks would think a guy with an advanced degree can’t learn about topics outside their fields. I’d let Lance lap my surface plate anytime. Thanks guys.
Some people are short minded and don’t think
...like a (very famous) heavy-metal guitar rocker, with a PHD in astrophysics??
There is nothing greater in this world than to do job you enjoy and to find peace in yourself when doing that job. I envy you greatly. Bless you both.
Thanks Adam for letting Lance talk about lapping. It is amazing how many lazy-boy experts out there feel the need to publicly demonstrate their own "qualifications" and depth of research in the comments. I learn a great deal from watching your content as well as many other creators. Hopefully it will inspire young people who are just starting out to learn about machining, metrology, and hopefully find a fulfilling career.
Absolutely fascinating. It's amazing how something most people don't ever think about is so critical in making so many of the modern tools, devices, dohickeys, and gizmos we use today
Also the what-cha-may-call-its
To Lance - A good quote that I found
"Can we master everything? Not a chance. But we should be willing to think of challenges as opportunities to learn new skills."
Great job.
I am here watching this video down one of my many machining rabbit holes and I'm hearing Larry's explanation at the beginning. I get this weird feeling that I have met him somewhere, like he sounds oddly familiar. As the video goes on I can't shake the feeling so I check out his website and remember he mentioned he was a vet. Suddenly it all clicked together!! He was my very first dogs vet when I was a student in university!! He was such a great vet and so willing to help and really understand and connect with his patients that he has been my benchmark for all my future vets. Very hard shoes to fill but I'm glad to see him again and not surprised he is this knowledgeable about his hobbies as well. What a ride!!
Thank you so much, Adam. Lance you are wonderful. It is extraordinary how difficult it is to do this correctly. Lance I have a degree in Chemistry, and in Biophysics. Veterinarians rock, you rock. I de-stress by doing fine wooden furniture making. I am proud of my work, and believe the devoted amateur can do as well as the professional, perhaps not as fast.
Thank you Tom!!! You ROCK Brother!!!!
Been watching for years Adam and honestly thought I was gonna be bored and almost skipped this one(no offense), glad I didn't. This guy is extremely sharp and teaches very well! Thanks for the content👍🏻
Really nice work Lance and Adam! That plate is looking great.
ATB, Robin
As always Robin, I appreciate your positive feedback! Thank you even more for giving me your time so I can learn from you! What a great community of people we have helping each other!!
@@lancebaltzley4770 The learning is both ways and it is a great community.
Thanks Robin! 👍🏻
@@Abom79 You are welcome!
Lance is legit, based on his science background. I am not even into machining, just a viewer, but he gives me tons of confidence. It is these hobby experts that can give big biz a run for their money. He is a vet, and that takes some brains for sure. Abom and Lance, true expertise at work here.
I certainly agree with that. Generally speaking a hobbyist who is also an expert will put much more time and care into it than a professional. This is not a knock on the professional. It's simply economic reality. Professional has to get the job done at a reasonable number of billed hours. The enthusiast does not have that limitation.
@@GunFunZS You are right, but what can happen is that when that person has put in the non-paying hours perfecting the art, he becomes the expert and so much more, able to do more in less time and also to tackle the impossible jobs easier than the time-driven ones.
Definitely not boring. I could listen to you guys all day everyday thanks for sharing.
It would be cool to see a “loaded” plate measured an see just how much it moves. Maybe stand a piece of round stock up in the center somewhere
Some conversions for folks who think more in metric:
Final overall flatness 65 millionths => 1.7 microns
Final repeatability 40 millionths => 1.0 microns
...and there's the difference between someone's profession and their hobby. Some professionals are just looking to make a buck, but people ENJOY their hobbies and tend to put more into them. Not a hard rule of the universe, there's plenty of hobbies that turned professional and some more professional professionals, but if you enjoy it chances are you're gonna get pretty darn good at it.
Also, people maybe don’t realize how insanely smart and adaptable one has to be a veterinarian.
@@shaolinshaotse The top school for it in my state (and maybe the entire US) doesn't give a summer break for the vet students like everyone else has. It is one of the most involved disciplines and is no joke. I thought about working towards it once upon a time, but realized I do not have the discipline or patience to even maintain the grades to merely get in. Every veterinarian or vet student I've ever met was a dedicated and smart son of a gun, and if you think otherwise, look up and see if you have what it takes to be one.
I am not an engineer, but I work among many of them. I am regularly consulted on projects and involved in the execution because I am a doer that doesn't let little stuff like rules, certifications, and fear get in the way of learning and doing. Motivation, acknowledging and playing to one's strengths and interests goes a long, long way. This guy seems a million times more legitimate than several unmotivated technicians I've hired to certify instruments in my lab. I agree with your and Brian's assessment.
@@ChevyConQueso You are the kind of person who makes this world work and develop. Likely you have wisdom way beyond the keyboard experts we have to tolerate while we are just sharing our shop time! Thank you for all that you do and for making our world a better place. Bless you and your family!!!!!
Thanks Adam, I'm just getting used to measurements in Thousandth's of an inch, now your talking in Millionth's I've got brain freeze :)
You can even see how much more consistent the surface is on video, Great work that deserves all the respect this man demands of his own work.
Adam, i really enjoyed your work with Lance. Lance, you are awesome with not just showing what knowledge you have in this but also not afraid to state you are still learning. Kudos to both you Adam and Lance in always being willing to learn new things and give your best to it.
Lance is the BEST lapping DVM I know.
Pink granite is more wear resistance.
Black/grey granite has better load bearing qualities.
Plates off equal thickness and size, the black plate has less deflection under load.
Incredibly precise work. Thank you for the opportunity to share this knowledge.
Great job Lance.
It is very clear that Lance IS a passionate professional person.
Having worked in the metrology industry for about two years it always amazes me (but is no surprise) that the most accurate tool we have is a craftsman’s hands and knowledge. The first straightedge had to have come from someone’s hands. All the technology we enjoy today sits on top of this knowledge which terrifyingly few people understand.
It sucks that they had to go through all that in the beginning because of a few jerks on the internet.
As a machinist for Garrett/Allied Signal/Honeywell (same company, new bosses) for over 30 years I watched the same father and son company come in and lap our surface plates every year and we had hundreds throughout the company. I was always impressed at their lapping technique which appears to be the same in the video. Granite plates scattered throughout a production environment suffer a lot of abuse from some careless machinists and always needed extra care. Our master plate in inspection was a monster 72 x 144 x 24 and sat on three 12 inch granite cube blocks.
If nothing else, you know where it's 'off' and can avoid using those areas. Overall, a fantastic job, and fascinating to watch the process. Thanks for the video!
With knowing the amount of drive and intelligence that is required to become a veterinarian I fully believe that you know what you are doing with this hobby of measuring flatness to such a precise degree.
im gonna do this to my whole garage floor
I'd like to say thank you Lance for telling everyone its okay to learn, then learn more
I'd also reference Matt Carricker from demo ranch...he's a veterinarian, an avid pew pew'er, a hobby carpenter/fabricator, and a TH-camr.
I know it's not an original observation, but man am I glad for metric. Use inches, anything smaller use fractions of inches, all the way to thousandths of inches, at which point any fraction is now a fraction of a thousandth of an inch, until you get to thousandths of thousandths of an inch at which point we just call them millionths, naturally. Bravo, guys, always enjoy these long form videos, the lapping sounds are very relaxing.
Sometimes Lance comes off as unapproachable. But I would never doubt the results that he comes up with as true. He is a little OCD
(ok a LOT OCD, like me). But I would trust this guy to be honest with me. Whether I liked his honesty or not.
My wife reminds me that I look like an angry felon.... its not intentional, I guess I'm just a serious guy or deep in thought too often. Thank you for the comment and I appreciate the feedback. It is true though I'm a no BS person and will give a straight answer or opinion, by which I will warranty.... All the best to you and yours
That’s awesome! Thanks for sharing with us. We appreciate your sharing with us and enjoyed the project. Fred. 👍👍👏🏻👏🏻👋👋
Clearly you are good and have natural talent for metrology. You also have the right equipment
Adam and Lance, you guy's have motivated me to lift my attention to detail and create with an higher level of precision. And I thank you, I'm sure I'm not alone here on this channel. Try not to worry about the negative you'll never change that. Cheers guy's.
Lance ! Another whole life learner here. Just keep what you're doing and try not to pay attention to what bad people say (I know it's not easy from my own experience). It's never too late to learn something if you want to and have the abilities. Keep up the good work :)
A wise man once said (I Forget who) said the day you stop learning is the day you die
He's a polymath.
That's amazing, great job! I'll say it again, Lance needs a youtube channel.
Amazing, I was captivated through the entire video, not sure what that says about me, but thanks for sharing and I appreciate the time you take to make this content and your style Adam, bravo thanks to Lance also.
Lance is a very talented bloke. Great job guys.
That's awesome that you guys took the time to go into Lances background and the background of granite plate surfacing. Besides of course the actual procedure.
This is the kind of knowledge that separates the machinists from the button pushers.
I watched this done on new plates at Standridge. The explanations here are superior. At Standridge they hadn't charged the plate for a long time and claimed it still had too much diamond dust on it.
"So, what are your hobby?"
"Flat"
Adam form the work that you do in you're shop that plate will be just fine for what you do.
Lance did a great job getting the plate to AA.
TAKE CARE OF THIS VERY IMPORTANT TOOL.
As a old tool maker I will tell you that the surface plate is the most important tool in the shop.
Congratulations
Adam & Lance that was a very interesting video. It demystified the mystery of the big deal behind flattness of surface plates and the understanding how measuring on a real flat plate insures your parts accuracy.
When you get down to it the plate will reside in a non temperature and humidity controlled environment.
Adam is a damn fine machinist but I doubt he will be subcontracting to NASA or the like, so It really only needs to be checked and lapped to shop grade so he can have confidence in his measurements and comparisons. Anything better is a bonus. There is no need for a written certification in this instance. Anyone who insists otherwise really needs to lighten up and get a grip on reality.
Cheers Eric
Thank you for posting this, you obviously have good life experience and a grasp on how the world works. I did this plate for Adam because he is a close friend and we wanted it to be the best we could achieve with the time we had. I appreciate your positive comment and approach.
@@lancebaltzley4770 I expected what midgoog2 said to be common sense, but I guess not since mister "I'm so smart I work with darpa" get all angry and sweaty.
Clearly you're a much better person than they are and you can be proud of yourself, being a chemist/vet/machinist and probably more
I'm glad people like you and Adam are sharing what they know
@@escalator9734 Common sense isn't so common, as they say.
@@escalator9734 Thank you sir!
I FN love this channel!!!!!!! I'm not a machinist I have zero equipment but I love to watch this it is so fascinating
Thank you Lance and Adam I found this video to be most enlightening on the techniques to correct and also measure plate flatness.
Rgds. Philip from Ireland.
Your day job reminded me of the joke where the proctoligist got tired of his profession and went back to school to be an auto mechanic. His final project was to put back togeather an engine. All the other students had finished and went home. The proctoligist finished and the instructor asked what took him so long to complete the test. The proctoligist answered with. " have you ever tried to assemble an engine through the tailpipe?"
There's always the keyboard warriors, but pay them no attention. I know of many cases where an enthusiast is better to learn from than a pro, because a lot of pros don't even know what they know cause they've been doing it so long it's all internalized. Thanks for showing this process!
Doesn’t matter what path people take in life, there will always be negative, uneducated critics. A person who makes an effort to better themselves, and pass on what they’ve learnt has what matters, a moral certification in humanity!
Lance is a really cool guy. Lots of qualities to aspire to. So much patience and the right attitude to learn!
Awesome video. The precision, craftsmanship, and attention to detail are top notch. Thanks Lance and Adam!
Lance is one smart man!
There are several thing I can say about this:
1. I’ve learned today something new.
2. I now understand the Rick&Morty part about flatness.
3. I’ve just watched two middle aged men scrape a stone for almost an hour. An most surprisingly I didn’t mind it.
4. Girl: I bet he is cheating on me.
While him:
5. I love craftsmen doing their thing taking pride in it.
Great clarification, Lance! Thanks for helping us learn about metrology.
Every bit of this was fascinating! Thank you for taking the time to discuss the theory! Adam, your channel is the best.
My father was a tool and die maker all his life and spent a lot of his time between a Boyar-Shultz surface grinder and his granite surface plate on his workbench nearby. Most of his work was in the .0001" tolerance range. Occasionally, he would get me to help him lift and rotate his black granite plate so that it would get even wear. The only thing he used to clean it was isopropyl alcohol. He could get a steel plate ground so flat that when you cleaned both the steel plate and the surface plate, the steel plate would float on a bed of air just like an air hockey puck. They had an inspector come in every so often to check and recalibrate the plate and he used an instrument called an autocollimator. I haven't worked in the trade for decades and miss it so much. My home machine shop is also my hobby; therefore, I just the cast iron top of my table saw for my poor-man's surface plate. Maybe some day I will spring for a real granite surface plate.
You can get 2ftx3ft ones at auctions all the time for not an enormous amount of money.
Moving it is a whole expense of it's own of course.
Keep an eye out and one with come up near you in time.
I am am English Apprentice trained engineer Machining to national standards of certification. Our master surface plate was in the tool room it was checked in the same way that you did Adam's granite that applies to all the companies I worked for even after Qualifying as a Design Draftsman
Thank you Lance, Abom. Never in my life did I expect to see measuring in one millionth. WOW!!!!! Again thank you for sharing. That was awesome.
Great video, I've been looking forward to this 2nd part, also liked the introduction from Lance, it put perspective in to the whole procedure. Thank you.
Veterinarian = Trained scientist. If you can pass organic chemistry you can work out how to lap a surface plate.
If you can throw a wrench, you can throw a ball.
That's not always true however I do believe he knows what he's doing.
Thx Adam and Lance, very educational video. Repeat-O-Meter shots are much appreciated
This one was really interesting! Thanks to both of y'all for showing the process of grading and tuning up your plate. This video and a few of the other ones y'all have made recently have moved surface plates from dark magic to understandable and approachable metrology for me.
This was EXTREMELY educational! Adam, thanks so much for recording and posting this video for us, and thank you Lance for showing us how these plates are "flattened" and what the gradings means. Great job guys! Now I have some accurate info when I purchase my first plate.
You guys don’t owe the negative trolls and internet police any explanations. If they dont like it they just need to move on. Keep doin what you’re doing.
LMAO!!! I am a veterinarian too who runs a Matsuura MVD-600V out of my home shop. I am in the same boat, stressful job all day, serious hobby at night. Keep up the good work.
Love ya Dan, keep at your passions!!!
I am a general surgeon, who has a machine shop in my garage, I can identify with both of you, I love being in the garage, great job Lance
@@bobwas4066 Awesome, thank you for the comment!! Love hearing from other professionals that enjoy this work!
@@bobwas4066 Dude you get to cut flesh and then go cut some metal. That's awesome (in a slightly brutal way).
I really enjoyed this. Thank you and Lance for showing the process.
It is amazing to watch such skilled and knowledgeable people work. Thanks for another great video Adam!