I've seen Mike work before. He's incredibly knowledgeable, obsessive and is always happy to share that information. He loves what he does.

Old interview but tons of quick fire info throughout. Mike appears knowledgeable and quick. Great stuff!

Great video Stan. Two of the three plates I have are Standridge. Good tip on the adhesive for using sand paper on a plate. Thanks for sharing. Tom

Makes me appreciate my AA Standridge plate that much more, thanks Stan!

Hi Stan, Thanks for taking us along for the tour. It's always great to see how something is made. Those surface grinders were incredible! Its pretty impressive that they can keep the surface flat on something so big. Very interesting place. Thanks for the video! -mike

Awesome! That was informative and entertaining Stan. Great to see how the plates are made. Your buddy there really knows his stuff. I was jealous seeing all those plates everywhere. I need one in my shop!! Thanks for sharing that your with us! Adam

Its great how enthusiastic this guy is, I love to see people with pride in their work, made this enjoyable.

Mike seems very good at what he does. Thanks Stan for taking us along.

I love granite but I hate making counter tops, doing this would breathe life into me. Thanks for uploading great video

That was a great tour of there plant with a lot of information about surface plates Thanks Stan & Mike

Hi Stan, This was an instructive tour, learned a lot about plates... Happy to learn that a American made plate is so much better, I'll enjoy more of my 36 x 36 x 6 Rahn plate. There were parts that I really had problems to hear and understand, about the maintenance of plates, if it would be possible to put aside a few minutes in a future video to resume at least that subject. Pierre

Wow at 16: the grinder travel on the X&Y is like a skilled painter and his spray gun,,this was an awesome tour,,thx Stan..Bear in Tx.

Thank you Stan and Mike for great video. Awesome!

Loved the tour. Learned a lot as well. Now my imported rock now looks like, well, a rock....LOL Colin ;-)

I enjoyed the tour. THanks Stan and Mike.

Hey Stan, Excellent interview, very informative, I learned a lot about surface plates! Looking forward to seeing your new plate in use! Really enjoyed the field trip! Ray

That was a very informative vid thanks for taking use along for the tour of the shop great one keep them coming Thanks Robert

Very cool, appreciate the tour and I see my plate getting cleaned better in the future.

How cool is this! Just picked up a Standridge granite plate!

Very interesting video. I would never get a chance to visit such a shop: you have brought it to me. Thank you!

WOW..... Absolutely amazing.... Fantastic video. Thanks....!

Thanks for all the great info and video of how they do it!

excellent video! Standridge just came up to Sacramento and did some plates for a collaborative event Bob Korves, Randy Richard, (Razor)Ray Goff and i all had our surface plates re-calibrated. it was very reasonable and they did excellent work!

Great video Stan that surface grinder was a massive peace of cast iron.

Hi mate. That was very interesting. I wish I could have understood a little more of what was being said, but I'm sure you did your best. Like you said, these seem very nice people, quite contrary to the people that I met in LA. This guy was knowledgeable, and became more interested when you asked him meaningful questions. Thanks for taking me along.

Excellent! That was extremely informative, Stan. Thanks for taking the time to make the video. I'm suffering surface plate envy after seeing all those big plates. Looks like you took home a really nice size one. Who'd thunk they use a Mag-lite as a light source for checking flatness. Cool!

This was a great video with lots of good info. I really enjoyed seeing that big brother Thompson grinder to mine. That machine was big but he was talking about 10ft plates, where was the one they do those on? Even that Mattison didn't look that big. Not even my house would be an acceptable climate for anything beyond an a grade plate I don't imagine.

thanks glad to hear that you still have a real person answer the phone. keep up the good work

Wow very informative learned a lot about surface plates I have a cast iron plate but would love to have a granite one, perhaps one day I can wish. Dave

Nice one Stan! I hope you can do some more of these!

True story. I used to work for a company that produces such high precision plates and high precision spirit and electronic levels in Switzerland. One guy, responsible for the machine shop, had an old tombstone from one of his family members. Where I live, the graves are not for eternety, so you'll have to deal with such situations after about 25 years. The tombstone was from this high quality black granite (Impala) and in perfect condition. So he sold the stone to the owner of the company and the stone was used then in various setups for internal use. The inscription was still there, they just mounted it in such a way that you couldn't read it.

That was so cool to watch. Always wondered and now I know. Great job.

Listen carefully at 15:30 and that employee is being talked up big time I hope he heard it on this video.

I learned something today.... really great video, thanks Stan

That was great Stan. Learned something new as usual. One day I hope to get a shop big enough to get a good surface plate till then il just drool over the ones here on KZfaq.

Thanks Stan for the great video

A great example of your creativity. It is a interesting and informative video! A side note on McMaster-Carr taken from Wikipedia: "The site ranked third in a large study performed at Stanford University about trust and credibility, just behind amazon.com and bn.com. The author concluded "The surprise comes in seeing who landed in third place: McMaster-Carr-a relative unknown entity compared to others who ranked high in this category. The McMaster-Carr site has relied on its own merits-not on a public relations campaign or a big reputation-in conveying high levels of credibility"

Thanks for the video. Impressive surface grinders

Great video Stan thanks Mike !!

Great video! Thanks for sharing.

Wow, Stan. Very informative.

Intersting tour. Thanks!

Great video Stan! Like all the equipment they use. I'll have to check out their website. Thanks, John (a.k.a. ShadeTree Machinist)

That was a good one Stan !!!

Good stuff, learned some valuable stuff. The plates that cross my path are going to be a bit happier.

Great video Stan. very educational. I learned a lot. Thanks Rick

Great "field trip" Mr. Skee. Bet your wife said you were a inch longer that evening. It's all about a rock-solid, dead-nuts, absolute, last-word... standard ... to base everything else from. Everything else is a cake-walk form there. thanks for you time.

Great video/information!

Oh lol the old wifes tales about leaving the casting to "season". Sure, it might have been done due to expense of heat treat, but it really has pretty much zero effect on internal stresses or metal structure inside the casting. I rememberseeing a study about this and they showed that it is at maximum 10-15 % that you can lower the internal stresses by just "seasoning" outside, while a proper heat treat gets almost all the stresses gone in a few days (big castings). The "real" reason you see castings laying outside is because they don't go out of tolerance sitting in the rain and usually there just is no space inside facilities to hold large amount of stock waiting to be machined.

Very interesting Stan and the Grinder Porn wasn't bad either, some big boys toys there.

curious if they said if the water temperature they use to cool thier grinding ops makes a difference, or if it comes straight from the tap.

That was a fascinating video and the fella was super helpful but the audio was so hard to hear i missed most of the detail ..id love for you to go back and do a detailed version of how they flatten to tolerance and more on their machine techniques

Very cool!!

I live in Escondido. Did not even know that they existed

Stan, Granite in Escondido? Who knew? Anyway, thanks for the interesting video. I guess you should keep your shop air conditioned during the summer if you live in a hot climate so your surface plate with me nice and comfy. I guess the take away from this video is to be kind to your surface plate. Never take it for "granite"! (No more puns . . . I promise!) Have a good one! Dave

40 millionths flatness on that big plate!

Greetings, 1. Could you explain or make a video on the mounting the surface plate on three point suspension with 20% style 2. what was that white bottle? Could not understand due to the background noise regards

That was the guy who refinished the plates in OxTools video wasn't it. I would love to see him make videos. He is very knowledgeable and passionate.

Did the ground shake at your house?

I wish I would have thought to ask you to ask them before, but living up here in Illinois and having a shop which isn't regulated for temp or humidy all of the time, what affect does that have on a surface plate? I know the accuracy will not be there based on the video information, but if it was in that condition, would it wear down or break if it might freeze in the winter?

Thanks!

Just started thinking of a bunch of granite puns.

What was the name of the Israeli brand and recommended grinding wheel supplier at approx 17:30? can't hardly hear it. Thanks

Very interesting, and cool Stan,,, thanks a lot for taking us along on the tour! :o) O,,,

Interesting video, good info Not the kind of thing I see everyday.

Чем они занимаются кто нибудь объяснит?

20 foot plates!?

super......

plates should be covered after use, shop dust that settles after work should be wiped every so often.

Very informative! But someone needs to tell that young man to either lose the hat or wear it correctly. He sounds very authoritative and professional, but it's hard to take seriously someone who's wearing his hat like a 10th grader. There does come a time when you should leave the things of childhood behind.