Flattening a sole

[Pat Barry]

Just what I have done in the past:
My "surface plate" is a sink cut out from a local granite fab shop. The price:::::FREE.
Plenty flat for any woodworking, and most machining that I'll ever need.
I mostly go blind and deaf when I see and hear woodworkers fretting over .001". Sharp is sharp, flat is flat (considering that the world is round).
I just don't think that the primo WWers of the ages worried about such trivia.
Blast away all ye who are so inclined.
Bill

I have heard others mention using granite countertops or even headstone for a reference surface. How flat are they? Anyone have measurements?

[bridger berdel]

Most granite counter cutoffs I have measured have been pretty far out of flat, like .050" in 6 or so inches. A few have been flatter than that, but I went ahead and got a chinese reference plate. It's flatter than I can measure.

[Stewie Simpson]

Tom; comparing the flatness of the sole before and after the lever cap has been tensioned, have you noticed a great deal of distortion within the sole.

regards Stewie;

[Patrick Chase]

Tom; comparing the flatness of the sole before and after the lever cap has been tensioned, have you noticed a great deal of distortion within the sole.

regards Stewie;

Tom describes that on his website as a "wives tale". My engineering intuition (and experience) is that he's right for Bailey/Bedrock configuration metal planes.

[david charlesworth]

I don't think it is the lever cap which can distort Bailey soles.

However frog fixing screws combined with poor frog seating definitely can. (Frog seating nothing to do with swan upping!)

David

[Patrick Chase]

I don't think it is the lever cap which can distort Bailey soles.

However frog fixing screws combined with poor frog seating definitely can. (Frog seating nothing to do with swan upping!)

David

Ah, good point: If the frog isn't resting cleanly on the machined mating surfaces, around the screw holes, then tightening will indeed cause warp.

It's not clear to me that machining the sole and sides of the plane with the frog installed is the right way to fix such warp though - I think that it would be better dealt with at the source, i.e. the frog's mating surfaces, and I think that's where Tom is coming from as well.