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A couple of years ago I bought a granite surface plate (18x24) from Grizzly. Finally set the plate on the stand today in the 'guitar shop'. Took a while to make room for it, but it's there now.

So...I'm soliciting ideas as to what it's good for. I bought it when I was doing mechanical stuff and I'd used on in a training environment and I bought one of my own. I'm familiar with using it to sharpen planes and chisel blades, but after that my imagination is running dry.

But mechanical stuff has gone dormant and lutherie is taking my time.

Thanks, folks.

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Peter Havriluk

Flattening plane soles, making straight edges, making levelling beams for fretwork.
I have used mine to sand wood flat, e.g. necks and fretboards.

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The name catgut is confusing. There are two explanations for the mix up.

Catgut is an abbreviation of the word cattle gut. Gut strings are made from sheep or goat intestines, in the past even from horse, mule or donkey intestines.

Otherwise it could be from the word kitgut or kitstring. Kit meant fiddle, not kitten.

Making nuts to flatten the bottom or square a side.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

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Anytime you need dead flat - that's it. Treat it right, and it provide good service.

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"Act your age, not your shoe size" - Prince

All of the above, but one caution: If you are not careful, you can sand a convex surface, rather than a flat surface, on the workpiece you are attempting to flatten. Pushing and pulling while sanding tends to cause tiny tilting of the workpiece. Uneven pressure on the edges does the same thing. It can be shocking how "unflat" something that was flattened on a surface plate can turn out.

You can get 1 X 2 aluminum tube stock and make your own leveling beams in the 3 - 5 lengths that you may use. That's how we made ours.

Another thing that they are good for is being a great "catch-all" for vintage, assorted necks, banjo heads, magic markers and orphaned strings.... and raising Hesh's blood pressure because he's a neat freak.....

I have one and love it. I use the veritas honing guide and sandpaper and I've finally got sharp chisels.
Razor sharp. Before this flat surface, getting sharp was a chore not to mention I never got any where near razor sharp. Sand the bottoms of my saddles dead flat too. Best $40 I ever spent.

Thanks, folks. I know all about horizontal surfaces and accumulations. I have a hobby bench that I use to work on display model airplanes. Five feet long, three feet wide and about one square foot usable, half work space, half paint rack, mostly because whatever's on those areas gets scraped into elsewhere on the bench. The unspeakable joys of a treasure hunt.

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Peter Havriluk

HESH! dang it, man! That is a precision tool! Stack that crap elsewhere and treat it with respect. If you must put stuff on it, make a nice cover out of plywood or something. SHAME ON YOU.

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"Act your age, not your shoe size" - Prince

I have a small one that stays on my setup bench with 220 and 320 sandpaper on it. I use it for nuts, saddles and whatever else needs a flat sanding surface.

Edit: This is the very first time I posted a photo of something and my photo was neater than the one Hesh posted

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Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

Well done, Steve.

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"Act your age, not your shoe size" - Prince

Dave did it.....

Hey take it easy on the Dave's

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Say what you do, Do what you say.

But you agree with me.... right, Dave Rickard?

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"Act your age, not your shoe size" - Prince

That's cool that you have a window Steve. You will recall our window that was right by the bench that you used when you were here, my bench.

Windows can be important for different temperatures of light that permit an excellent perspective on things. With 50,000 students, many of them passing three stories below our window on a main drag it reminds me of what it must have been like here in the turbulent 60's. John Sinclair, SDS and you can still imagine Eldridge Cleavage all just from looking out our shop window.

Windows are important!

I have to say Hesh that your bench was in perfect order, of course and I appreciate you loaning it to me for the weekend. The window you guys have sure does overlook an interesting area!

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Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

We've got a couple of the Chinese surface plates Like Steve's and we use our's to rub our nuts and saddles on.

English was not my first language so cut me some slack, eh? . At least I'm not posting any action pics..... be thankful for that!

This would be where I shamelessly copied the idea from. Got lots of good ideas there, to a large degree where the incentive came from for me to demo and rebuild my shop last year.

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Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

Must . . . suppress . . . urge to make infantile joke.

Sorry, can't resist:

I just hope you wipe that surface plate down when you are done, Hesh.

Before and after........ Felix Ungar Lutherie here.......