Contact me here with questions, design interests, or via my eBay Hanhartcal40.
THE LAPPING & HONING “Flip-It” PLATE
Dura-Bar cast iron approx. 1”x2”x6”. Both faces surface ground to .0003” up to .0005” on lap and other hone side.
-TOOLING FOR WOODWORKERS, MACHINISTS, GUNSMITHS, LUTHIERS-
A36 Steel Hand Lapping Plate
A small EDC! I’ve been focused on making an extra run of portable A36 Lappers. Single-sided only. Made of low carbon but hi-ductility A36 steel, approx. 1”x2.5”x3”. Sides are rougher end-milled to better position and fixture in a vise. Manually ground by me to .0005” across 12” and hand-lapped flatter. Also listed via eBay through my userid Hanhartcal40. Heavy.
I also have made some Aluminum Lapping plates at 1"x3"6", for using abrasive to charge your lap and run Dry (but add some WD40, mineral spirits, or kerosene) or Wet with slurry.
The “Flip-It” Plate is two-sided.
Pictured up top is the “Flip-It” Plate. Image of the lap side. The honing side is left flat and not cross-cut (hone side not pictured). Please visit my eBay listings at my userid Hanhartcal40 where these are also listed.
This “Flip-It” Plate is an incredible value to use for lapping or honing small items such as triggers, sears, other tools, chisels, woodworking planes. Nothing else like this out there. And yes - it’s Heavy, but portable and packable. I’ve also made some of A36 steel as well in 2.5” width. The cast iron are the original.
I am also now making from Grey Dura-Bar cast iron a Honing-only "Flip-It" Plate. Both sides hone. These have a ball-end mill cut along their sides' lengths for handling, and I will begin to add same to my other products. See photo in the gallery.
The “Thicka” Precision Straight Edge
Special because these are fashioned Thickly. A half inch thick and approx. 6” long by 1 1/4”. Hand ground to .0005” flat on each face all-around. American O-1 tool steel and hardened to approx. 55 RC.
Hand-made by me in Fort Lauderdale, FL
Not a business but a means to help others and to make some extra items to (hopefully) help recoup if even a little of my investment in my hobby - it's an opportunity to give back and help others with what I believe are needed and unique sets of items that can make your shop better like mine has been helped.
Just a shop guy with spare time to make tools I can use for my hobbies and by extension I know would be useful for others. All made using primarily older vintage USA iron, tooling and fixtures.
Using a 1948 SB 9a lathe, 1953 Benchmaster Mill, 1950’s Harvey Butterfly Surface Grinder, Evenheat Heat Treat, Beaumont (OHIO!) Belt Grinder, various older and new Starrett, B&S, Mit, and Swiss metrologic equipment. If you're curious, just Ask!
I’d like to offer new tools and/or fixtures for folk who are like-minded and who believe these will enhance your build capabilities, in whatever craft you’re involved. For example, I’ll be making a run of precision straight edges from thick O-1 tool steel that’s thicker steel than otherwise found, anywhere, at flatness to .0005” or better...
Contact me here or via my eBay userid Hanhartcal40 for Spares or extra runs made. Sometimes my extras reside on Ebay.
About me: I'm in a full-time outside demanding career and have family obligations and hobbies galore. But I also have a Mechanical Engineering degree and background, have worked in the steel manufacturing industry, and have innumerable hours of time into reading and studying oodles of classic, narrow field and vintage machine and manufacturing books and materials.
Growing up in Central NJ and absorbing early experiences with family and relatives in machine shop and tool & die environments, led to an interest in metal. Some of my friends if they're in a craft hobby are into wood - nope, too messy, and after all I believe Metal is King.
Today, having some equipment and time to delve into my hobby, I'll run some spare items as I best my prior versions and constantly try to improve or innovate tools of use. Again, this is a hobby and not a business. Anyone in the "business" of machining understands how my letting go these items won't nearly reflect the costs of time & labor inherent in their creation.
I hope you share a hobby and interest. And if not, develop one for the self-meditative aspect of doing something different and trying to excel.
Excellent for Small Lapping Service & Duty
While these items are smaller than the largest lapping and honing plates, these are suitable for those needing portable smaller units.
I will likely seek seek to make a run of Aluminum and other versions of small sized hones and laps, some in the “Flip-It“ Plate versions.
Please read my FAQs to better understand the make, process, use and why's of these items.
FAQs
Contact me or just go to my eBay userid Hanhartcal40 to see if I’ve any spares or extras run available.. Sometimes I’ll list these on Ebay.
See farther below for commentary on A36 Steel and cast iron.
The HONING & LAPPING “FLIP-IT“ PLATE is Rectilinear to hone chisels, plane blades etc & perfect to lap small items. Cast Iron SOLID THICK. HEAVY. Made in Fort Lauderdale, FL.
May make more (I'm focused on my small "A36 Lappers") but I made a single HONING & LAPPING “FLIP-IT” PLATE from Dura-Bar grey cast iron, sized about 1" x 2" x 6". That's right - it Hones or Laps when you flip to either face.
Dura-Bar is top tier quality cast Fe production bar stock made by Wells Manufacturing Company in Woodstock, IL. I try to work all aspects of machining on US made stock and US old equipment, tooling, and metrology, some German and Swiss, some top names, some vintage machinist-made... primary machines are Benchmaster knee Mill from '53, SB Lathe from 48', Harvey Butterfly Grinder from early 50's - all manual, all the time. These are handmade.
And TWO SIDES, dual-use. Has one face Honing smooth surface and a 25 degree cross-cut Lapping surface on opposite face for lapping articles flatter than if on other material.
Sides are left as-cast from the foundry. Faces each surface ground to .0005" over 12" w/ consistent repetitive testing on Interapid indicator. Many just grind X-Y and call it done. I grind X-Y, then reverse ea directional having sparked-out each phase. And I criss-cross at 45 degrees again and flip back each way. All of this helps cancel out any error in table differentials. This takes a lot of time! The Honing side remains surface ground. The Lapping side is then HAND LAPPED to an even finer flat.
I also make these "Flip-It" Plates from A36 Steel for a slightly reduced price.
(Images shown nclude some of my equipment, as well as of my Hyprez applicators/compounds and Babcock lapping plate which are used to refine the FLIP-IT Plate lap side)
* Perfect for woodworkers, gunsmiths, turners, luthiers, chisels, plane blades, leather crafts folk, for hobbyists and machinists, both amateurs and fellows.
HONING SIDE - .0005" flat Smooth surface ready for hone processing of your items, like chisels, blades, planers, accepts charges of abrasive or carbide pastes, or simply a slurry of whatever paste you decide to create be it valve polishing compounds and oil and the like. Use uniformly as you would for your chisels and blades and other metal objects for bevel-work, etc.
LAPPING SIDE - .0005" flat then hand lapped flatter.
About your use - Lapping is science and art, it involves not really permitting the item to physically touch the lap substrate. The item to be lapped is done by the abrasive in a film (a WET lap) and/or abrasive that is charged into the lap itself and used with a little bit of a liquid film (considered a DRY lap, but still using some nominal liquid). With steel and cast iron laps we're generally speaking to more or less a WET version of lapping, Make the slurry using the abrasive compound in an oil film (or water, but oil is better to maintain the abrasive in suspension) whether you have Silicone Carbide-based abrasive, AO powder-based, or Clover-brand, or US Products stuff, or diamond micron-like products, or non-embdedding abrasives. It may be as powder form, or already in a paste. Note some compounds are already engineered with their slurry content that you don't need to add liquid like oil. Your feel will tell you how much oil you've added is "right" and it's working the item lapped. So the process here is more using a consistent thin-laid charged film which is the way professional lapping is done, like on those great rotary Engis-Hyprez machines (though the application is already prepared from the product).
Keep in mind lapping here requires your compound held in a slurry medium, be it oil or water. Note however that some abrasive compounds sold are already in an engineered paste which do not require ANY added oil or liquid- and have the appropriate mix of particles and medium as a built-in design. Ask the vendor if such offered are these. Back to adding anything to your abrasive paste or compound, while this is getting wonky, I doubt it matters if you use a detergent or non-detergent oil (i.e., automotive oils are detergent and carry their pollutants in dispersion, meaning likely good for lapping, good since I guess it would help carry the abrasive consistently in it rather than letting it drop to the bottom of the film), gun oil, or WD-40. I just mix the powder or compound in a small plastic cup with some oil or WD-40, or just dab paste atop the lap and add oil (or spray WD-40) atop and begin.
In-use add down pressure of only about 2 psi pressure. That’s not much. In general if the item is heavy-ish just hold the sides evenly of what you’re lapping for directional control. On this small a plate w small items, the item likely won’t even weigh a half-pound, but when you push down you introduce uneven pressures and wear. I’ve read 3psi and greater is considered hi-pressure which using hand methods likely will cause you to slag-wear and round the edges of whatever you’re lapping. Anyway, I’m considering making a holding fixture of sorts to adapt to round and rectilinear articles which is more the professional way to hold your item and lap. If you press down hard, you'll abrade your item quicker, but also break down your abrasive faster and need to recharge your plate with your slurry more often. Beware you use even pressure if doing so.
A thing about hand-lapping technique. Some theorize use figure 8's, others a circle or oval motion, some extend beyond the edge of the plate, and constantly reverse direction or shift the plate's directionals. Or all of these. One I've read makes sense that if you run circles or figure 8's, try to move the item lapped in a circular moton about itself, as well. This helps eliminate potential scratching grooving issues and makes for more even wear. I think it makes sense but it must be very difficult to manipulate your item circulalrly while doing figure 8's. That theory must be to emulate a proper lapping machine which runs items in their holders atop a circular plate, where the items are held around the circumference of the plate in holders as the plate spins underneath and the items themselves are spinning round likewise at the same time. This evenly spreads the action across all surfaces and at all the varying speeds you find at various circumferential locations when moving across the plate. I just don't happen to think it's very practical manually with one or two hands on a hand lapping plate!
About Honing Plates: I've seen thin low carbon steel honing plates for sale, most out of stock, which are said to be .005" flat. That's just not good enough if you can use a superior product. Those other plates at .005" are in fact thicker than a sheet of paper, almost twice as thick as some sheet, and folk have said those low carbon steel versions appear to be fly cut so they may not even be blanchard (can get you around .001") nor surface ground.
Further, there are too many complaints about the Chinese and other make diamond Honing and sharpening plates - they sort of look like lapping or Honing plates, others not so much, and they sure are cheap, but the trouble is they lose their abrasive factor some after only several uses and quickly leave totally uneven contact surfaces. Not ideal and hard to say when it's given up unevenly.
* This plate at .0005" is 1/6th the thickness of a sheet of paper variance across the flat. Thick heavy 1" CAST IRON bar plate which does BOTH honing and lapping. This is not aerospace quality re cosmetics, I've left the sides as-cast and am a hobbyist machine worker. I believe this to be more than an excellent value.
A word about A36 Lappers and A36 "Flip-It" Plates - Normally you want a lap softer than the item you want lapped because some charging of the abrasive can go into your item. A36 is "soft" steel so much so with low-carbon that's rated below the measurable Rockwell C scale. So if you lap anything steel you should be okay. If you check your item's Rc and it is "on the scale" then it ought be harder than A36. However here's the great thing - if unsure, or if you are lapping BRASS or other metal that's soft like Aluminum, just buy NON-EMBEDDING abrasive powder or paste like anhy Garnet based versions. Lookup non-embedding compounds online and many are sold via Amazon, Ebay, McMaster-Carr, for example.
Another word about cast iron and A36 Lappers and "Flip-It" Plates. These will tend to create a more matte surface finish to your lapped item because of more of a "Rolling Action" of the abrasive slurry and compound between the two surfaces. It will not make a "Cutting Action," which is also a faster abrading, as when you might use an Aluminum Lap, for example. This is because abrasive will charge and embed into the Aluminum and hence cut/abrade your item in a traditional sense. Either plate types will create "cutting" however should you use a lot of down pressure, but this is not advised. With the A36 and cast iron, as you use finer and finer grits, to 1200 and higher you will develop a shinier finish and of course smoother, but please don't expect a super shiny silver finish with at least the use of the A36 offerings here. Expect your cosmetics to generally remain more matte. If you lap steel it'll tend to grey matte. And I believe if you use a Silicone Carbide abrasive you can only get a matte finish no matter what you're lapping on or with. And remember, the finish color is not indicative of its flatness or smoothness. Matte grey can be as flat and smooth as shiny silver.
Grey cast iron is the traditional material used for lapping and even honing - be sure to seek non-embedding abrasives such as Garnet-based if you are lapping items that are softer than the cast iron. Those will break down easily and become a polish, in essence, and then break down further to inertness. Then recharge your plate. With cast iron you are supposedly able to do Dry lapping where you charge the plate itself with dry abrasive or slightly wetted abrasive and maintain a fine film of naptha, mineral spirits, or kerosene on it and use the lap essentially like a stone to "cut" your item. I've always used mine using a Wet method slurries for a rolling action and enjoy that process. Plus you can just clean the lap and re-use with a finer compound. If you embed your lap with a particular grit size, I believe you'll need to buy more laps for each grit - Coarse, or Rough, FIne, Extra Fine, etc. (or by size 120, 280, 500, 1,000 ,etc). Hence the advantage of using low-carbon A36 Steel laps and cast iron with slurries.
Be sure to clean your faces prior to each use and before flipping it. You can easily use Carb-Cleaner and spray it down vertically to get ALL the gunky greasy oily or water-based abrasive slurry out of all the cross cuts and surfaces to ensure you won't leave behind ANY contamination of that rougher abrasive as you move up to a finer one. You don't want a few scratches on your item as you move up in Fine abrasive grit,
Be sure to keep it oiled when not in use.