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Best height for a granite surface plate

marka12161

Stainless
Joined
Dec 23, 2016
Location
Oswego, NY USA
I brought home some steel last week to build some rolling benches to get the shop organized. One of the first projects to be tackled is to fabricate a frame to hold the 24 x 36 x 6 granite surface plate. Long experience has taught me that 34 inches is the best height for me for a work bench. My original thinking is i would also want the surface plate at this height but since a surface plate is a measuring surface, not a work surface, i'm wondering if something a little higher might be better (less bending an squinting). Anyone ever given this any thought?

Mark
 
32-36" seems standard. Ultimately it depends what you are doing. Consider what you will be lifting on and off of it. Small parts = higher will be better, large parts = lower will be better. Bigger plates do better lower, even with small parts, because you need to be able to reach across it.
 
How about fabricating the stand with adjustable legs ? Drilling rows of matching holes in the bottoms of the legs and in short pieces of stock used as bottom extensions will allow the height to be adjusted as needed. This was commonly done on some power tool bases or stands. Using bolting in drilled holes rather than slotted holes insures there is nothing to slip in the connections at the bottom of each leg. It also insures that the legs are all the same length.

This idea works whether the table is to be stationary or on casters. I've seen some very heavy granite surface plates set on stands made of steel angle, with casters on the bottom of the legs. This allowed the plate to be moved around as needed so access to all 4 sides was possible. It also allowed the plate on its stand to be pushed out of the work area when the floor space was needed.

On that same note, adding some levelling screws to the bottoms of each leg with swivel pads (stock tooling components ) would be the ideal if the table were to be left in one location. The swivel pads or "feet" can be ordered with threaded studs for shanks. This will give maybe 1/2" of adjustment for level. For fine inspection work on a large surface plate, having it levelled is a good idea.

Either way, the adjustable length legs could be combined with either casters or swivel pads. Making the table with adjustable legs having bolted connections is a lot neater and more solid than finding out the table is too low and having to put blocks under the legs. If the horizontal crossmembers are located at a convenient height between the legs, a bottle jack could be used to raise or lower one side at a time for height adjustments on the bolted legs.
 
I dont know what mine measures, but I went to websites like starrett, etc. and looked at their stands for measuring plates and went with that figuring they sorted out a popular height over the years, worked well for me. I wont be at my shop for a while so cant measure, but that is how I came up with it.
 
Sounds good to me at 34 inches. I have never seen adjustable legs and would be weary of them as far as strength and the sheer weight of the block. Stationary permanent legs for me.
 








 
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