Recycled steel if you can find any.

[ranald]

Hi All
With the high cost of steel, I have resorted to using any old steel I can lay my hands on be it from scrap yards, skips, material I have been given or lying around or any other means.
I called a local material stock holder who is very well priced. Well I had bit of a shock when getting a quote for some mild steel bar, for a project I wanted to start. After checking out prices else were the prices quoted were very competitive but out of my price range. So, after waiting a couple of months a piece of material turned up in a skip the exacact size I required. So, dragged it out (a bit rusty and had quite a few holes drilled in to it) but I was so happy with the find, As can be seen from the photos I was able to cut the pieces require for the project, missing the previously drilled holes in the bar.
The piece of bar is 50 x 50 by about 600mm long bright mild steel. grade unknown. The price of a new 3m length, I was quoted £200.00 + vat (well I nearly fell of my chair, good job I didn't have my head in a skip I would have fallen in lol, I honestly thought they had made a mistake.) I was expecting a price of £40/60 + vat.
Here are some photos of the find, and how I cleaned the stock faces up on a home made lapping plate which holds an emery cloth taught on a flat steel plate. The 1” linisher is used to de-burr the sawn ends and the lapping plate removes any dings and dents that might be present on the bar. I do this even to new stock material as you can’t guarantee the bar has not been damaged from the stockist and I dont want to transfer the dents from the material on to the machine vice or machine table.
Anyway, always on the look out for useful stock for the workshop but even more so now.
As can be seen once cleaned up a big money saver and still have a few cut offs left over for other projects.

Attachment 21795 Off cuts left over

Attachment 21796 linisher

Attachment 21797 Home made lapping plate

Attachment 21798 Required material cut and de-burred ready to used and the remaining offcuts

Thank you for taking the time to view and happy hunting.
The Home Engineer

For lapping /sharpening I use a granite section( I used to use glass) with wet & dry: I cut off the granite piece from a piece of kitchen bench with an old wet daimond makita saw.

We are not supposed to scavenge but i occasionally pick up something from the recycle yard . costs nothing to dump steel, aluminium, & paper here but they sting us for green rubbish & other stuff. A boot load (even for a small compact) is about AU $20 & small box trailers go up from there.

I used to buy steel (quality BHP) back in the 70's, for Brisbane City Council (at that time it was the third biggest council in the world=20 councils amalgamated to form the large municipality in 1925) for under $200 a ton for black & some bright & anything over $200 had to go to "stores board" for ratification or clearance. A ton of 316 or 318 stainless was less than $1000 so didn't have to be ratified by full Council meeting. Quality at a reasonable price-inflation.

cheers

[Toolmaker51]

I use a piece of 1/4" plate glass as a lapping plate with grinding paste as the abrasive. Cheap and easily replaced when the surface is no longer true and it can be as large or small as needed.

Mike

Plate Glass is one of the better & economical 'flats' available. But 1/4" has a degree of flexibility. If your local home improvement store has 12" x 12" marble floor tiles, those are not bad either. They are lesser cost; thicker than double strength glass, and edges don't chip so easily.
Its a good idea frame your lap; 1] to attach paper retainers 2] provide means to secure the plate to a work surface 3] reinforce plate into a dependable plane.
If flatter yet is desired, use 3 plates to cross check intended plate. Glass or marble will respond to loose abrasives in water or oil slurry.
Working 3 plates is THE classic method of producing true flat. Unsure who created it but an early important use was by Joseph Whitworth. They didn't have means to measure how flat, but it was later realized he was attaining millionths ~.000005 or better.

To lap parts correctly, the part hardness should exceed that of the lap. The abrasives work by embedding themselves - 'charging' - the lap. Interpreting something like Moh's Scale will show glass harder than metals in general. Grooved cast iron is very common material for lap plates and certain cylindrical applications, but copper and soft steel show up in more hole laps than iron.

[Okapi]

Plate Glass is one of the better & economical 'flats' available. But 1/4" has a degree of flexibility. If your local home improvement store has 12" x 12" marble floor tiles, those are not bad either. They are lesser cost; thicker than double strength glass, and edges don't chip so easily.
Its a good idea frame your lap; 1] to attach paper retainers 2] provide means to secure the plate to a work surface 3] reinforce plate into a dependable plane.
If flatter yet is desired, use 3 plates to cross check intended plate. Glass or marble will respond to loose abrasives in water or oil slurry.
Working 3 plates is THE classic method of producing true flat. Unsure who created it but an early important use was by Joseph Whitworth. They didn't have means to measure how flat, but it was later realized he was attaining millionths ~.000005 or better.

To lap parts correctly, the part hardness should exceed that of the lap. The abrasives work by embedding themselves - 'charging' - the lap. Interpreting something like Moh's Scale will show glass harder than metals in general. Grooved cast iron is very common material for lap plates and certain cylindrical applications, but copper and soft steel show up in more hole laps than iron.

Here by chance we can found about every flat glass piece in the recycling area, just to come before it's broken by the next one…

[thehomeengineer]

There is nothing like putting a new sheet of emery cloth on to the lapping plate. It’s like getting in to a bed with fresh bedsheets .
Old sheet been removed.

New sheet ready for action

[Toolmaker51]

There is nothing like putting a new sheet of emery cloth on to the lapping plate. It’s like getting in to a bed with fresh bedsheets .

In that case, I recommend switching to different brand of fabric softener....
Some other quips come to mind, so now is the time to run; Save Yourselves!

[thehomeengineer]

Hi Toolmaker51
I think I need to get out more I must be getting old if changing the lapping plate cloth gets me excited. I wonder what I will be like when I clean down my Mill and Lathe tomorrow. Could be doing cartwheels around the workshop. I will let you know tomorrow evening
The Home Engineer

[jdurand]

If anyone is in the SF Bay Area, I have a bunch of my raw materials that need a new home. I've got long sticks of some things like angle steel, some tube, and of course shorter stuff and plastic.

[Toolmaker51]

Hi Toolmaker51
I think I need to get out more I must be getting old if changing the lapping plate cloth gets me excited. I wonder what I will be like when I clean down my Mill and Lathe tomorrow. Could be doing cartwheels around the workshop. I will let you know tomorrow evening
The Home Engineer

Over the years, I've had good performance cleaning machine tools with auto-mechanic style hand cleaner. Lately, found plain old corn/ vegetable oil dissolve various greases and oils too, surprisingly well. Once they get 'under' petroleum based products, those lose adhesion and wipe off. Gone!

[Captainleeward]

Some one has been in the sand box again sandy cheeks....Cap. I'm not saying who.....

[Okapi]

Over the years, I've had good performance cleaning machine tools with auto-mechanic style hand cleaner. Lately, found plain old corn/ vegetable oil dissolve various greases and oils too, surprisingly well. Once they get 'under' petroleum based products, those lose adhesion and wipe off. Gone!

I don't know your legislation, but here as we have a high tax system on all petrol based products, we have substitutes made with natural base which are not under those taxes and function very well in washing bath or by hand cleaning, with an advantage that they are not volatile, it's a lot better for our health.
They are certainly made in the manner you describe with vegetable or similar range of solvents.