Granite surface plate cleaner?

[dana gear]

I also just use windex.

Me too, have for many years.

 

[ttrager]

I used to use Windex to cut the grime then IPA to get extra clean but my wife turned me on to these Norwex brand towels that are high quality microfiber towels and now I just use it lightly damp with water. Towel is seriously impressive. They make some big claims on their towels but one thing I can agree with is that they pick up everything and don't let it go. I find it gets the surface plate as clean or better than Windex and or IPA. Another advantage is that they have silver infused as a natural antibacterial so they don't ever really get smelly, I just wet mine, ring it out and hang when done. I bring it home every few weeks to get it cleaned deeper but it never smells.

I bought one of those Norwex towels and gave it a try. As you've advertised, it works fabulously. I even tried your water only and it worked really well, however, technically not as well as plate cleaner. I sprayed a bit of plate cleaner in one spot after the water only cleaning and used a white wipe-all towl and it came up with a bit of blackish-gray still.

Never the less, those Norwex towels swallow everything on the plate like no tomorrow, leaving the surface of the plate feeling glassy and slick with no micro-debris that I could feel.

Thanks for the tip, from you and your wife.

 

[Cannonmn]

I bought one of those Norwex towels and gave it a try. As you've advertised, it works fabulously. I even tried your water only and it worked really well, however, technically not as well as plate cleaner. I sprayed a bit of plate cleaner in one spot after the water only cleaning and used a white wipe-all towl and it came up with a bit of blackish-gray still.

Never the less, those Norwex towels swallow everything on the plate like no tomorrow, leaving the surface of the plate feeling glassy and slick with no micro-debris that I could feel.

Thanks for the tip, from you and your wife.

Wonder if the Norwex towels/cloths are same stuff as the microfiber yellow items we get at Costco? The fine print on the back talks about performance like what has been described here.

 

[guythatbrews]

I have a second hand plate thinking about getting calibrated so looking at various threads.

Glad to hear IPA works good to clean surface plates. I try to keep some on hand. Any particular brand? Lagunitas IPA one of my faves. Stone brewing makes a great one too. I am surprised to hear it's good for cleaning tho. Always makes stuff sticky when I spill it.

 

[Mark Rand]

I see what you did there.

 

[jscpm]

Auto detailing clay. Watch an instructional video before using it.

A lot of error on plates is caused by embedded microscopic grit. The clay lifts it out.

If you don't believe me, try it on your plate and then look at the clay and you will see little tiny black specks.

 

[drcoelho]

I second the Starrett Surface Plate Cleaner, works great

 

[cash]

I have been looking for some cleaner. For years I used the DO-ALL surface plate cleaner, I absolutely love it, problem is you can not get it right now! My inspectors use 409 cleaner. When my DO-ALL was getting low, I mixed with some windex.

I can understand stories where people may say just use windex or whatever, but on my large granite, other cleaners just don not seem as good. Does the color of granite maybe make a difference? My large is Pink, most others are black here.

I see a couple people here have used starrett, any good sources? I see Penn tool has listed.

 

[Mike1974]

I have been looking for some cleaner. For years I used the DO-ALL surface plate cleaner, I absolutely love it, problem is you can not get it right now! My inspectors use 409 cleaner. When my DO-ALL was getting low, I mixed with some windex.

I can understand stories where people may say just use windex or whatever, but on my large granite, other cleaners just don not seem as good. Does the color of granite maybe make a difference? My large is Pink, most others are black here.

I see a couple people here have used starrett, any good sources? I see Penn tool has listed.

MSC has the same list price on Starret as Penn. We use Starret, but I see SPI makes some too but never used

 

[cash]

MSC has the same list price on Starret as Penn. We use Starret, but I see SPI makes some too but never used

I just bought some Starrett. We will see.

The DO-All after wiping would stay wet for about 30-45 seconds. Then dry and no residue left. this is why I liked it. I would use a brown paper towel for wipinng, it would always be black from dirt, so it was cleaning the granite.

 

[TGTool]

I would use a brown paper towel for wipinng, it would always be black from dirt, so it was cleaning the granite.

You sure that it wasn't micro-lapping your plate? I hope the pink stone wipe was coming out black too and not pink.

 

[dcsipo]

Mostly a problem if you're scraping. A few tenths won't generally hurt anything for most inspection work. If you're scraping though it can cause problems, especially if you're scraping two separate mating surfaces and as a result they're both non-flat the same amount but in opposite directions.

Mating surfaces should be scraped rough to the surface plate and then to each other. One should never expect two surfaces scraped to a master to have perfect spotting against each other.

 

[Turbowerks]

The go jo like Richard says seems to leave a nice polish on the plates maybe the lanolin in it , windex seems good also, even the awsome dollar store cleaner works well awsome.


When I find it I don’t need it
When I need it I can’t find it!

 

[cash]

The go jo like Richard says seems to leave a nice polish on the plates maybe the lanolin in it , windex seems good also, even the awsome dollar store cleaner works well awsome.


When I find it I don’t need it
When I need it I can’t find it!

Every now and then I will wipe my plate clean and cover in in Lanolin. This will take several hours then to soak in. I am told it is to help the plate from "staining", like when using pigment for scraping. I would say it may help, but in no way prevents....

Here is an old Instagram post....it says log in but this link takes you to the post, then you can arrow across the photos.

Login • Instagram

 

[AD Design]

Here is an old Instagram post....it says log in but this link takes you to the post, then you can arrow across the photos.

Login • Instagram

-Nice rock, is that yours? Size?

 

[cash]

-Nice rock, is that yours? Size?

yes, it is a 72" x 144". It is inspected to grade AA, I grind precision parallels and need it as good as I can get. After the first 2 years, it has really stayed put and it needs minimal touch up upon re certification.

 

[jccaclimber]

yes, it is a 72" x 144". It is inspected to grade AA, I grind precision parallels and need it as good as I can get. After the first 2 years, it has really stayed put and it needs minimal touch up upon re certification.

What do you think caused the larger movement in the first couple years, or do you think your wear pattern changed to a more uniform one?

 

[IninefingersI]

I use the same granite cleaner my wife buys at Menards to clean our countertops. Making the granite into a surface table rather than a countertop doesn't magically change the stone.

 

[Peter.]

I use brake cleaner to clean all of my surface plates. Haven't noticed any harm come to them yet.

I did once go to buy a large plate that was full of pock-marks though. Whatever they had used to clean it had dissolved one of the aggregates that made up the plate.

 

[engrx2]

Need a decent potion for routine granite plate cleaning. ,in a video, Joe P? Said household ammonia was best. I know it’ll do the job but wonder if it’ll harm the granite, it is a fairly strong base, chemically. What should I buy, or is ammonia perfectly fine?

Ok, after reading a bunch of folklore and issues with water and granite, I settled on the Starrett MKS-4 Granite Inspection Surface Plate Cleaner and Kimwipes. If you look at the MSDS, it is apparently not water based and unlike the SPI cleaner, is low flammability. It does do a fantastic job removing particulates and after it dries tools glide easily.

There is a warning on the Starrett label not to use water or water based cleaners. I did a quick look into the scientific literature using Google Scholar, and yes water absorption by granite is a real issue. The main bulk of the literature is in civil engineering where they care about the strength of rock and the rock swelling. The Starrett stuff is cheap enough ($60/gal) that I'm the not going to take a chance with a $3000 plate.