Years ago some of you may remember I bought a lathe and a bunch of other equipment. I had the lathe for a couple 2/3 years and sold it, it was just too small for me. Most of the equipment I sold off as well as I already had it, like a bench grinder, a drill press and a couple other items. I kept the machine tooling. One piece being this cast iron surface plate.
The guy I bought everything off of was a guy I worked at the same company with, my last machine shop as a matter of fact. He was the son-in-law of the guy named Ron who owned the equipment who was 91 when he passed away. Steve was selling off his stuff for his wife, the daughter of Ron. When he retired he brought his favorite pieces of equipment that would fit in his garage home to use after he closed the shop down. He had everything at home for more then 20 years, but got too old to use it so it just sat in his garage until he died. Poor guy.
Ron ran his own machine shop for over 20/30+ years or more, I really don't know how long, Steve said it was a LONG LONG time. The Logan lathe I had, he bought brand new in 1946. So I basically bought it from the original owner, who in fact taught Boyd Coddingtonthe famous car builder how to machine as a teenager as an apprentice in Rons shop when Boyd was a about 15 years old.
Anyways, I have had this surface plate for about 5 years now and when we moved it sat and 1/2 half of it rusted up in my garage since it had a box sitting on 1/2 of it. That side is just fine, no rust. So I needed to get the rust off it to oil it. So I used a large 7" X 2" knife sharpening stone with a course side and fine side to it. I lapped the rust using penatrating oil and the course stone on 100% of the surface. Then the fine side, then some about 320 sand paper using a precision ground flat block to lap it to a good finish. It still has some stains but the rust is gone and it still feels smooth as a babys back side. The rust did not pit it thank god.
It does not have a manufacturer name plate on it so I have no idea how old it could be. But, I can tell you if this was bought before they started making Granite surface plates that it is probably pretty old as was all his stuff. Could be 50 years or more old??? I have a Granite surface plate as well, but this old cast piece is just cool, and rare. I want to take and layout a pattern and drill & tap either 5/16 or 3/8 course thread holes all across it in a 2 x 2 pattern for tooling & fixturing. I dig the history this plate probably has even if I don't know about it. Buy the way, I helped clean out Ron's garage as I was loading up my truck with stuff to buy.
I paid $2400 for everything I bought and later sold just the lathe for the $2400 I paid for everything. I have a ton of turning tools and all kinds of drills and machine shop stuff I kept. Steve, the son-in-law told me Ron would hide money in his garage so don't be suprised if I find an envolope with money in it. When I took a look at this plate in his garage I just happened to flip it over and sure enough I found an envolope with $500 bucks in it folded and taped up inside the square ribbing underneath.
I of course gave it to Steve for his wife. It was the first bit of money we found and were excited it was true. That day we ended up finding a total of $1700 bucks hidden in his garage. Needless to say his wife was happy. And, I'm happy I was able to buy this old piece of what I consider machine shop history.
The guy I bought everything off of was a guy I worked at the same company with, my last machine shop as a matter of fact. He was the son-in-law of the guy named Ron who owned the equipment who was 91 when he passed away. Steve was selling off his stuff for his wife, the daughter of Ron. When he retired he brought his favorite pieces of equipment that would fit in his garage home to use after he closed the shop down. He had everything at home for more then 20 years, but got too old to use it so it just sat in his garage until he died. Poor guy.
Ron ran his own machine shop for over 20/30+ years or more, I really don't know how long, Steve said it was a LONG LONG time. The Logan lathe I had, he bought brand new in 1946. So I basically bought it from the original owner, who in fact taught Boyd Coddingtonthe famous car builder how to machine as a teenager as an apprentice in Rons shop when Boyd was a about 15 years old.
Anyways, I have had this surface plate for about 5 years now and when we moved it sat and 1/2 half of it rusted up in my garage since it had a box sitting on 1/2 of it. That side is just fine, no rust. So I needed to get the rust off it to oil it. So I used a large 7" X 2" knife sharpening stone with a course side and fine side to it. I lapped the rust using penatrating oil and the course stone on 100% of the surface. Then the fine side, then some about 320 sand paper using a precision ground flat block to lap it to a good finish. It still has some stains but the rust is gone and it still feels smooth as a babys back side. The rust did not pit it thank god.
It does not have a manufacturer name plate on it so I have no idea how old it could be. But, I can tell you if this was bought before they started making Granite surface plates that it is probably pretty old as was all his stuff. Could be 50 years or more old??? I have a Granite surface plate as well, but this old cast piece is just cool, and rare. I want to take and layout a pattern and drill & tap either 5/16 or 3/8 course thread holes all across it in a 2 x 2 pattern for tooling & fixturing. I dig the history this plate probably has even if I don't know about it. Buy the way, I helped clean out Ron's garage as I was loading up my truck with stuff to buy.
I paid $2400 for everything I bought and later sold just the lathe for the $2400 I paid for everything. I have a ton of turning tools and all kinds of drills and machine shop stuff I kept. Steve, the son-in-law told me Ron would hide money in his garage so don't be suprised if I find an envolope with money in it. When I took a look at this plate in his garage I just happened to flip it over and sure enough I found an envolope with $500 bucks in it folded and taped up inside the square ribbing underneath.
I of course gave it to Steve for his wife. It was the first bit of money we found and were excited it was true. That day we ended up finding a total of $1700 bucks hidden in his garage. Needless to say his wife was happy. And, I'm happy I was able to buy this old piece of what I consider machine shop history.
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