I broke mine in three pieces by accident yesterday – gutted!

Fizzy,

If it is any consolation, I made one for The WaterWorks Museum in Hereford. Bought a slab of marble from a stonemason in a local town.

Made up a sturdy angle iron frame, with internal cross bracing, to provide a flatt(ish) surface on which the marble could sit. Each corner had an adjustable levelling screw, at the bottom of a vertical piece of angle to prevent the marble from moving off the base.

Placed a sheet of hardboard on it, which was covered with wet, rather sloppy plaster / wall filler, before placing the marble slab onto it. In that way, the marble should be "floating" and free of stresses.

The 18" x 24" slab of marble cost me £30. Larger would have been too heavy to place / remove from, the boot of the car! You may be able to get a better deal.

Then made up, and varnished, a simple plywood cover for it.

Howard

They don't seem to specify the weight – which is a bit of an omission for something like this.

Hi I got granite composite cutting board from Tesco very flat, well flat for my skills, cost £12.

I had it propped on its sude against the hydraulic press….moved predd, plate dropped and kaput! Ordered a new one but that one had sentimental value – gutted

Oh dear!

I trust the sentimental value wasn't because it had 'In Loving Memoriam…' carved on one side!

Neil

Edited By Neil Wyatt on 10/01/2018 18:01:46

Neil, I am a professional and it will be used as evidence against those who doubt my skills . Thankfully, I will not be using this gear to check my work, but to accurately mark out hole positions for the musical instruments I manufacture (Low whistles and penny whistles).

Cheers Jim!

I am very happy indeed with this surface plate! I made a box for it and it sits in the bottom part permanently with a piece of cork (3mm thick) underneath to ensure it is fully supported. I have lined the top of the box with cork as well. I purchased a selvyt cloth as well for cleaning before and after use. Only thing I will say is that when it came it had a very small chip off the edge, I think you can just about make it out in the pictures but it is no problem at all. Price is bang on. Happy days!

Edited By James Wilkinson 3 on 18/01/2018 22:14:40

Edited By James Wilkinson 3 on 18/01/2018 22:19:39

.

For "anti-rocking" stability, three-point support is ideal … but that does permit the risk of the plate sagging under its own weight [minimised by selecting the right three points, but never zero].

Otherwise; distributed support, as provided by James's cork sheet, should be good.

MichaelG.