oxtoolco
1 HN recommender · recommended in 3 months, 2017–2020
33:05 · 464K views · Jan 21, 2016
A look at how granite surface plates are inspected, calibrated and reconditioned using an autocollimator, a repeat meter and diamond-charged cast iron laps. Measurements are at the level of millionths of an inch.
Cited in threads on flatness and precision as a glimpse into a niche metrology profession.
3 comments from Hacker News
The YouTube channel oxtoolco has a video showing lapping of surface plates. Not the same as hand scraping, but the principle of using a reference surface is similar, and the master plate looks like the illustrations in this 100-year old document. Plus I think with modern synthetic diamond abrasives, you can directly lap the plates against each other. Lapping starts at 17:40 (they do surface measurements first): this video I am no machinist, but I like the glimpse into the hobby/profession shown on channels like this and others that comments have mentioned. In the video, the channel owner hires a company to service his stone regency plates, so there is an expert who comes and uses specialized tools to measure and then flatten the plates (and certify them too). You can see and experience the expertise that the guy has with these physical systems, yet it’s just one niche job in a huge engineering tool chain. It really made me think a lot about metal machining and fabrication, and how those rely on fundamental measurements and properties such as flatness.
Hand techniques are still used for reference surfaces in machining. Granite surface plates (highly accurate planes) are hand lapped[1], and metal bearing surfaces on machine tools and cast iron reference tools are sometimes hand scraped[2]. [1] On location calibration and lapping of granite surface plates: this video [2] Hand scraping (effectively chiseling) of reference cast iron surfaces: [LINK]
What applications are you talking about? Just for a general example of the sort of thing I'm talking about: this video They're resurfacing a surface plate, which has to be very flat. If you listen to the exchanges between them, everything is being done in millionths of an inch.