a source for cast iron plates

Re: a source for cast iron plates

John Meikrantz

>Bill,

Would one of the precision ground steels work as well (i.e. 1018, or O-1, or something along those lines)?

Some of the other steels seem pretty reasonable. Kind of like the steel kanaban that are used for Japanese irons?

John

Re: a source for cast iron plates

Bob Fawcett

>Victor Tool has some of their precision ground flat stock on sale 35% and 50% for sizes they call overstock.

Example 5/32" thick 3" x 18" price is $17 50% off equals $8.50.

Mount this on a piece of MDF with some glue.

You could harden it if you want. This is O1 steel.

Re: a source for cast iron plates

Fred Krow

>I would suggest Ductile Iron, it is a very stable and tough material.

Regards,

Fred Krow

likely not

bill tindall

>I have tried acrylic and cast iron. I like the acrylic for 60 micron-cuts soooo fast, but the tools slide better on cast iron when using the finer diamond grits. (Actually I have also use mandrels turned from aluminium for grinding gouges with coarser grits)

I have not used steel. When I talked to a place that does a lot of diamond fabrication (diamonds are shaped by grinding them on a cast iron plate charged with diamond) they told me there was something special about cast iron and that it worked greatly better than steel. Diamonds embed better, graphite provides lubrication???

The diamonds must embed. They must be stationary while the tool to be sharpened moves past the grits. This way the tool to be sharpened wears while the substrate does not. Hence, you do not want a hard substrate that would prevent proper embedding.

Re: likely not

John Meikrantz

>Thanks, Bill.

How well does the aluminum work for coarse grits? Any reason aluminum plate wouldn't make a good substrate for flat blades?

John

Re: a source for cast iron plates

Jim in Burlington Ontario

>Bob does Victor tool have a website? I googled it and had no luck. Thanks Jim

Bill's right; not 1018, nor 01, nor just any iron *LINK*

David Barnett - Venice, FL

>Tool steels, even when fully annealed and spheroidized, are significantly inferior to plain cast iron or Meehanite for lapping of hardened and tempered tool steels. You generally want laps that will hold the abrasive fast, minimizing loose particles that may scratch, glaze, or embed themselves into the material you are attempting to refine. Although mild steels can initially hold a charge and can ocassionally be pressed into service (I've charged framing nails with diamond to make rotary carving points for gem material), such steels are far from ideal and subsequent surface work hardening will render poor results and difficult maintainence.

Cast iron's fine structure and homogenous distrubution of graphite makes it just about perfect for hand lapping edge tools. Of course, copper, tin, lead, zinc, certain brasses, wax, and other natural & synthetic resins can perform admirably when correctly matched to abrasives and target surfaces to be lapped.

Lapping proper should not be confused with loose abrasive grinding where all involved surfaces wear simultaneously. Here's a brief description:


Summary and definition of lapping process

Re: a source for cast iron plates

john in Ks

>Bob,

Do you have any contact information for Victor Tool?

Thanks,

john

Aluminum

bill tindall

>60 and 30 micron work ok in aluminum, at least a spinning cylinder of aluminum for sharpening the concave surfaces of gouges. I have not tried aluminum in plate form for something like a plane iron.

Re: a source for cast iron plates *LINK*

Bob Fawcett

>Here is a link. I have ordered from them and recieved decent service.

http://www.victornet.com/cgi-bin/victor/productlist.html


Flat Stock

Re: a source for cast iron plates

Bob Fawcett

>I looked at this link and see that they also list "flat section" cast iron. A 3/4" x 4" x 25" section is only $8.20. I can't tell how much difference there is in this and the "flat stock".

The "flat stock" is about 3 times as much money though.

Check it out.

http://www.nolansupply.com/bysubcategory.asp?category=Fasteners&supercategory=Cast+Sections&subcategory=Flat+Sections+%2D+Cast+Iron&type=False&specs=True

Re: a source for cast iron plates

John Meikrantz

>Bob, those prices for the sections are per inch, in 25 inch lengths, plus extra for custom cutting. They should be nicely ground though.

JM

Re: a source for cast iron plates

Bob Fawcett

>John,

I just purchased 2 and that is the price for the whole piece, or else I am not reading my receipt correctly.

It's priced per inch, with max quantity of 25...

David Barnett - Venice, FL

>...so 2 pieces of quantity 25 each would be $410.16 and quantity '2' would be $16.41, and would be 2" x .75" x 4".

"Price is per inch."

"On all Cast Sections fractions of an inch are charged as a full inch. There is a cutting charge of $6.50 for all lengths under maximum length noted."

"Specify length when ordering."