Looks good!

Would like to put something like that on my pillar drill.

Is that steel or ally?

What is 'flash ground' mild steel plate and where from?

Peter

Hi Peter Spink,

I think u'll find flash ground is the finish after plate has been flame cut at a specialist profileing w/shop….

when I get plate cut to pattern I allways ask them to knock the lumps off on the grinder…..basicaly a 1m'ish grinding wheel horizontally mounted in a machine with a coolant spray, "not quite" but just lower the steel onto the wheel for a light touch…….reasonably accurate, the molton metal blobs are removed as well as the mill scale (blue color on new plate) don't expect the 2 surfaces to be parallel but good enough for the drill press job tho…….

Never seen lazer cut steel finish yet, is there anyone out there that has…?…….interesting to know……

Ta Clogs…….

Hi Peter, as Clogs says the "Flash Ground" plate comes from a flame cut profile cutter. After flame cutting to size it is then ground on a "Lumsden" type of grinder, usually flat enough for most work. It is a very cheap way of buying steel plate. If I need better finish/flatness or more controlled size I go into where I worked before retirement and surface grind the plate.

Laser cut tends to be very hard along the cut line, much more so than flame cut. Water jet cutting leaves everything soft.

Neil

Peter, where in the country are you ? Here in the Midlands we have a number of profile/flamecut suppliers.