In the mid-60's I was on a Polaris Submarine repair ship and I worked in the Fleet Mechanical Calibration Lab. We had 2 black granite surface plates a 4'X8' and a 2'X4', we calibrated our own using a procedure from Metrology Engineering Center in Pomona, Calif. we measured every inch and plotted it using a Davidson D638 autocollimator and a precision front surface mirror. It would take as about 2 days to shoot the big plate and about a half day to shoot the small plate. Then we would enter all these measurements into a Frieden mechanical calculator and it would set and crank out for about 8hrs to give us our high and low spots as I remember it was a AAA plate but we used it for everything from a bed to ironing our uniforms on. It was mainly used to calibrate all the optical equipment we serviced, when I went back in the Navy in the early 70's nearly all the optical stuff had been replaced by electronic equipment. I really loved working on and calibration optical instruments. Those days are long gone.

I like that guy, you can tell he loves his job, which is something I always like in people.

You watch one video on surface plates... and now the algorithm's got you.

I was surprised at the simple equipment too. You can tell those guys have a solid understanding of the concepts, and are not just following steps.

25+ years in manufacturing and I have never seen this done. Thank you so much for posting this video. It's not at all what I had imagined. Great stuff!!

Interesting work. It was nice that the guy was into talking about what he was doing and let you video it for us. That story about the lady who only wanted the B certification was hilarious.

Wow what a treat! How many of us would ever have seen this on our own. Thanks for sharing Tom!

The kindness of the field techs walking us through the process... thumbs up! Thanks Ox!

Great to see folks who are enthusiastic about their work, happy to be filmed, and happy to explain for everyone even though they probably weren't expecting it. It says great things about the company and the professionalism. Big thumbs up to Precision Granite for this (and you of course Tom!)

Man, I've watched this like 3 times over the last few years, and it's still as entertaining as the first time I saw it. You can really tell these guys love what they do. Love how they took time to educate you and us. Thanks again Tom!

Wish I had 50 millionths of this dude's energy

Tom, thanks for sharing this with us! The process of flattening granite surface plates isn't seen often by machinists. I saw the tail end of a calibration about 30 years ago but that's all. Funny story - when I first began working in the engineering department where I'm working now (25 years ago) I found under a huge pile of junk, a pink granite surface plate , a monster size 6 foot by 10 foot. After I cleared it off and tried cleaning it, I found globs of hardened epoxy all over it's surface! It turns out that a bunch of students were using it to make composite panels on it! That stone must have cost 10's of thousands of dollars and was used as a table! We have since gotten rid of it and I replaced it with a 4 x 4 foot pink stone that I use to set up fixturing for my new wire EDM.

"Under promise, over deliver." Really cool video!!

Yet another job I can add to the list of "careers I had no idea existed".

I'm coming into contact with precision plates for the first time and this is completely blowing my mind! I love how so many precise things come from such a simple tool... a surface!

"your granites are actually improving my laps" OK then let's just do a contra, you don't bill me, I won't bill you. hahaha

Man, I'm a geomatics engineer (formerly know as a survey engineer) and these guys are talking about 1/4 second precision and all that, that's incredible! You've got to have some pretty fancy equipment to reach that precision, I'm gaining some new appreciation for the measurement precision needed in machining.

Particularly enjoyed this video Tom. These guys obviously know their stuff. It's always good to see professionals doing their thing. Thanks.

I started watching your videos for the machining, but you've made me really love the theory and practice behind inspection and metrology. Thanks Tom!

Absolutely fascinating! I loved every second of that. Listening to that guy talk, you can tell he really loves his job. Awesome stuff, Tom.

Love this kind of stuff! Machining and metrology go hand in hand. Big respect to all the smart people solving problems in machine shops.

Simply fascinating that you do not see very often. I learned something new today thanks to you, Tom. Much appreciated.

Excellent video Tom! Never seen how this was done and am glad I could see it. The whole process seems so simple but that's what professionals do.....make it look easy.

This was super fun to watch. It's always cool to see a professional explain the process too.

Very cool Tom. Understanding the details really reveals the magic of the simplicity of thinking the methods through. Almost too simple.

It's nice to see such a young guy getting into this kind of old-school technical work. Hopefully they'll be able to keep the skills alive!

Tom, you blew my mind with this one. Never have I seen this process, and its amazing how (relatively - given that young guys expertise) simple it was.... I'm still digesting this video. Absolutely useful.... Thanks a million, Daniel.

Hi Tom! For me, this qualifies as the top most informative video of the year! My wife and I both found it fascinating. The tech guy was speaking so fast, I had to rewind and listen more closely. Many thanks for sharing this info which I had never seen or read about anywhere else. Daniel

Fascinating to watch. Thanks you for uploading this (and the inspection company for letting you film it)

awesome tom. its just amazing the simplicity of the tools to do that job. the guy knows his stuff and that is just as awesome!!!

This was a nice video. Great to see a young person who takes such pride in his work. Very knowledgeable technician.

Excellent Tom. As said this is something that not a lot of home machinists would ever see. regards from the UK.

Really enjoy this vid Tom. It was a real eye opener for me. This is my second time through seeing it. I met Mike and John at the tour put on by Stan this summer and they were wonderful guys, so generous w their knowledge and their time. Keep up the great vids.

Just watched all your lapping vids plus this one... FASCINATING!!! Thank you for capturing this.

I keep coming back to this. Foundational for precision and super interesting. Thanks for sharing!

Gread video, Tom! Thanks for recording and sharing this.

Absolutely fascinating and informative video! It addressed little things I've wondered about for years. Thank you, Master Ox!

A rock-solid video that did much more than skim the surface of a monumental subject!! As usual, I watched and learnt.

truly amazing to watch thanks tom and the guys who sorted your grant

Very cool Tom! I remember seeing the surface plates and inspection tables being calibrated when I worked at Nook Industries.

Really fascinating stuff. It's wonderful to see real specialist people working like this.

Great video. That's the first time I have seen that done to a surface plate and I really enjoyed the video. Thanks for sharing with us.

Very impressive craftsmanship. I’ll watch this a few more times.

Wow...I did not expect to enjoy that video as much as I did. Thanks for posting it. It was very entertaining. And yes, it was very cool to see them achieve such precision with such simple tools.

This is why I love this channel... where else are you gonna see something like this? The problem is that now I want my own lapping set up! Very cool stuff.

i recently took an interest in reconditioning and collecting tools. even ones i wont ever actually use. understanding how they work is so fascinating in the respects that the thinking and evolution that have gone into making them tools blows my mind. recently i brought a double sided diamond lap from faithfull tools and when i started using it for sharping wood chisels and plain irons i quickly realized that a flat surface is imperative for a keen edge. ive even used the lap to flatten my polishing stones and used them on the plane irons. so far the shaveings have come off the wood at 3 thou or less. never underestimate the value of a good flat serface.

Very neat video. I love to see people that love doing what they do and are so good at it!

I always look forward to Standridge coming out. I run a flat lapping company and when they are here I get to really geek out about flatness!

I have read about the process of reconditioning plates but there's nothing like seeing it actually done. Thanks for the video!

I'm with you --- I found this fascinating. I have no use for this knowledge but, I love learning so, I watched this from end to end. Thank you for making this video.

wow, that was so much simpler than I thought it would be. Thanks for sharing. I really enjoyed that.

Tom, Awesome video! I've always been mystified about how such a precision piece of equipment could be so relatively inexpensive to purchase. Now it all makes sense!

Great video. I had no idea how they checked or finished a surface plate.

Thanks for showing us that process Tom, very interesting.

Wow, I learned so much from watching this! And the tech is so assured- his manner is as precise as his work. Manny didn't say much but I bet he's nearly as well-versed.

This was so cool to see. Thank you for filming this.

Thanks Tom, that was very interesting. Nice to hear the one tool was from the forties and made in England. Mart.

Fantastic stuff, Tom. Very interesting process and some really good results.

Tom, that was a great video. I had the same impression you did before seeing it done in the video. Figured they would work on small areas, measure and repeat until they had it flat, similar to scraping ways. So there's three items for the tool acquisition list.

Great video, I learned something new tonight. Never too old to learn something.

Blimey!!! We need more of these sanding guys in South Africa. Guy is enthusiatic.

Hi Tom, what a treat, and as my physics teacher said 'Keep it short and simple', nothing works in this world that is not related to physics!!!! Really enjoy your videos (including the physics stuff) regards. Joe

Absolutely fascinating. A recently deceased neighbour was a metrologist before he retired, you should see his kit. As an ex glazier and amateur optician I love to see this kind of absolute accuracy. I have a couple of Hilger & Watts diffraction gratings and a clinometer, fine tools.

Killer stuff, I work for Newport Corp and we deal a lot with high precision flats, always fun to see them calibrated.

I ran a calibration lab in the UK 🇬🇧. And now 3 of my 4 children work in the same field. It brought back some memories of working on site.

Great video and thanks for sharing and same goes for the crew letting you film/ask questions etc. I'm pretty sure that there's another video floating around with this guy in it at their shop.It's been a while but I recall him pulling out the old 40's era gear to double check the laser they use.Seems like they've worked a lot together and make a nice crew too.

really interesting video thanks Tom. I thought it would a lot more high tech to achieve improvements. The two guys were very accommodating and a credit to the company. Very knowledgeable and willing to share that knowledge. Thanks very much.

What a cool process to watch. Thanks for making the video.

Great demonstration of the process, thanks for making that video.

That's a bunch of granite that is super smooth and super flat. Amazing to see such unique things.

Good to see the boys out in the field doing their thing.

I've seen this done once, a few years back. I do recall seeing a repeat-o-meter used, but instead of lasers or an autocollimator, they used some other device. I recall it squeaking against the palate. I was too busy working to get what was going on, unfortunately. Cool process, same realm as hand scrapping. Very neat video!

I used to hear legends about guys like these in my shop days and it's funny to have KZfaq now, and see the guys doing it. They weren't even born when I was in high school.

that was time well spent, thanks to everyone for this video!

Two thumbs up, Tom! That was very fascinating! Thanks for sharing

that was a great video. never knew tools like the ones the techs use existed. allways good to learn new things and to see older tools in use.

Nice to know how this is done. I too, expected some elaborate process. It's all in the knowing. Thanks for sharing.

Hello Andy. My name is Len. Been watching your videos for the last few months. Just want to tell you that where you are is beatable. I know because I have been there for both treatments and today have a quality of life second to none. Your will be back in the tractor for planting.

Cool video Tom, glad you need to get flat so we could see this process in action, quite interesting and the low tech in itself was a surprise.

Well, thanks for yappin at em and asking em questions and getting it all on camera, it's been an education.

Just bought a small lathe and came here looking for machine tips and setup etc. Half and hour later and I am absorbed in surface calibration. Awesome vid! It was great to see someone so passionate about his work. He should really be working for himself. Only a good tradesman invites observation and inspection.

That was great to watch...thanks for video taping and posting.

Just can't stop watching this one Tom👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍

This dude is 👌, loves his job and is very knowledgeable.

I had no idea that it was such a "simple" job. Thanks for sharing Tom. Learned something new.

Tom, very interesting, thanks for sharing it with us. Craig

Very interesting Video Tom. Its amazing how simple it was to resurface those plates. Learned something today. Thank You for sharing. Cheers. PS got one your books about 4 months ago . Great job I have passed it on to a young machinist to read over.

That is amazing. Thanks a lot for sharing this and what surprised me the most is the fact that the laps they use are smaller than the actual surface plate, I always thought that in order to lap something correctly you need to have a bigger lap than your part.

Wow Wow Wow 👌 I found that truly fascinating watching that young guy do his business in a very casual but super professional manner ... his work ethics is way up there ... Nice Clip 😎 😎 😎

Amazing to see the process. I had no clue before.

I now know what to look for when mine are reconditioned, good timing and thanks for sharing.

Fascinating! When I first started watching, I said to myself, "There is no way I am watching this all the way through." Now 33+ minutes later, here I am. Oh, yea I had two rewind a few times to catch the good parts. Haha! O.C.D.

Learned a lot on this one. Great point to cover. Thanks Tom!!

Really worth watching. Fascinating.

Very interesting. Pay attention and you can learn something new everyday my old Dad used to say. Thank you Tom.

I got an 2x3 plate last summer. At some point, I'll be doing this too. Thanks for giving us a blow by blow. That was very cool.

Fascinating episode, Tom. I started out in hobby machining because of my interest in making my own telescopes, and the mirrors had to be ground and figured to within 0.25 of a wavelength of light (~125 nanometers). I built my own Foucault knife edge tester (wikipedia has a good article on them) and used it to test my mirrors. I've always gotten jazzed about super precision stuff! Thanks for posting this, it was great!

Great video! I'm a metrologist for the DOD...good memories of using the auto-collimator /w mirrors to cal rocks. We now use electronic leveling heads...not as glamorous as the optical way. Very, very cool vid. We have that same H/W collimator on the shelf...it's a beaut.

Tom, that was very interesting, thanks for sharing it with us. Craig

I echo the other sentiments. A great video on the simplicity of accuracy.