Flat Iron for tool?

Hey, I was just lookin through the site and found a place were a guy said that a 1/2 thick peice of steel 12x12 was invaluable tool. He said it should be smooth and polished. What is this used for exactly and what cheap method should I go about polishing it. I have no buffing wheel. Any help would be great.
Cheers

If at first you dont suceed get a bigger hammer

[davecourt]

you can buff it to a mirror finish almost with sand paper,
on a grinder or belt sander.
start with a low grit count and work your way up to the highest you can get.
grind in the same direction.
hope this helps
dave court

[Wray Schelin]

Originally Posted by Infidel

Hey, I was just lookin through the site and found a place were a guy said that a 1/2 thick peice of steel 12x12 was invaluable tool. He said it should be smooth and polished. What is this used for exactly and what cheap method should I go about polishing it. I have no buffing wheel. Any help would be great.
Cheers

If at first you dont suceed get a bigger hammer

Hello ( insert name here), This is not the CIA, names work around here. :-o:-o

I think this is the post you referenced. You can use the flat slab of 1/2" steel plate to planish against, to crush tucks and to crush welds on if it is hardened.




"A list of inexpensive tools needed to get started with

You can get your feet wet with just a sand-filled leather beater bag and a couple of hammers.

If you find you want to do more, here is a good list:

• A flat chunk of steel 1/2" thick or so at least 18" x 18". Cost: under US$10 from the scrap yard. Grind surface with a body grinder to smooth. If you are lucky enough to find a hardened surface ground plate then you have found a tool for life.
• An aceytelene/oxygen torch bought new. For a set of single stage gages,hoses /and torch Lease tanks cost under $200 per year. This will allow you bend, cut, weld, etc.
• A set of tucking forks. Make them yourself cost less than $5. Make a big one( 6 to 8" reach 3/4" stock), a medium (3 to5" reach 5/8" stock) , and a small one( 1" to 3" reach1/2' stock)
• A post dolly. Build yourself and bolt it to the floor. Cost: $20 for scrap steel.
• A set of dies to fit your post dolly. Cost: if you creatively look for scrap you will find all kinds of different blocks of steel at the scrap yard that will be begging to come home and work for you. Cost: $20.
• A beater bag filled with 00 sand. Cost:$35 to $60. and or a hollowed out tree stump. Cost free
• A plastic forming hammer with replaceable heads. Cost : $20-90. You buy one hammer and make many heads for it rather than buying 5 or six different hammers.
• A steel slapper made from a car leaf spring. Cost: free, make it yourself from a broken leaf spring.
• A 5" Milwaukee body grinder, it has variable speed and soft start. I prefer this model because you can use a soft DA pad on it and polish and sand with it besides just grinding. Cost: $140.
• A set of hand shears. ProSnip brand offsets are great. Cost: $20-25 for a left/right pair.

With the above tools you can jump in and get started. You can make just about anything if you put you mind too it. You can use the post dolly and the flat plate to planish, flatten tucks , and to crush your welds.

So for under $1,000 and a small workshop space you can make the first project. It can be an ashtray or a whole car body.

I would call this tool list the Italian school of metalshaping. Quite a few the most valuable Italian collector cars were made with just such a list of tools in small shops after the war.

The next step up would be to build or buy an English wheel to make your planishing more efficient.

Wray"

[gator 1]

Wray is correct. A ground plate is dead flat across the surface and should be smooth. Im not sure about polished because as soon as you start using it, its going to get scrached. This tool will be used for hundreds of things like layout, planishing , scribing and mesurements. What the purpose of that post i believe was you dont need high doller or all the equipment to get the job done. Gator