Surface plate maintenace

Yesterday, I noticed a guy lapping a granite with a cast iron webbed surface plate. Obviously I thought that was interesting so I stopped to chat.

He had these levels (I think this is the brand), he laid out a x across the plate and a series of orthogonal lines. He took readings every 4 inches with two electronic levels. I'm not sure if that was a sanity check or what.

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Then some software on his laptop created a profile of the surface plate. From there he used his lap and diamond dust to work the imperfections out.

I wanted to nail down a few more things but work got in the way. Imagine that, work getting in the way at work ;)

Anyway, that was interesting. Btw, he was a former AMF 82-70 pin setter mechanic. Small world.

Wes

Reply to
Wes
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Found this.

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±0.1 arc second repeatablity. Wow!

Wes

Reply to
Wes

And if you can't get your head around .1 arc second, think of it as=20

1/16" in 2 miles (6 micro" / ft). "Wow" is right!

Bob

Reply to
Bob Engelhardt

The Taylor-Hobson Talyvel was probably the original that this unit was copied from. I guess Taylor-Hobson's patents have long expired. My Talyvel 3 also resolves to 0.1 arc second, but repeatability on my unit isn't that good anymore. A few scratches on the bottom, bump it a couple times, maybe the electronics gets a little out of adjustment. I still can do fine at 1 arc second, though, which is MORE than enough resolution and repeatability for aligning lathe beds and similar crazy jobs.

Jon

Reply to
Jon Elson

Thanks for that bit of data. I'll have to look into that.

I do have one regret, I should have asked him how much to touch up my chinese granites.

Wes

Reply to
Wes

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