Granite surface table for £6.99

Shopping in Aldi's his afternoon and happened upon black or grey granite 'Worktop Protectors', to allow placement of hot pans on vulnerable work surfaces. There are two deals available, both priced £6.99. One (which I purchased) is a single granite slab measuring 400mm x 300mm, the other comprises two slabs, each 300mm x 200mm. The slabs are about 15mm thick so are substantial, but the most valuable aspect, from a non-culinary point of view, is that they are ground to optical flatness and so make jolly inexpensive surface tables for marking out, checking and measuring on. I checked the flatness by looking at a reflected fluorescent tube whilst tilting my slab this way and that, without detecting any ripple or distortion. I reckon that means the surface is adequate for most folks need, SO .. if you're lacking such an item in your workshop go and bag one quick; stocks are limited.

They are quite good but had to buy two sets as SWMBO commandeered the first lot

Paul

http://www.model-engineer.co.uk/forums/postings.asp?th=77670

Hi all

anyone wanting something like this will be better off going to there local granite kitchen worktop manufacturer.

there you will find a skip full of hob and sink cutouts. just ask them if you can have one. they will probably tell you to take whatever you want for free.

its all just rubbish to them and everyone knows getting rid of rubbish for businesses is expensive these days

happy hunting

Paul

I had granite worktops fitted at christmas. Unfortunately they cracked it at the thin rail section where the sink cut out is. They are coming back to put a new piece in next week. I asked them today what would happen with the old piece and could I have it to save them the trouble of transporting it back to their workshop

Yes no problem they said. You are welcome to it.

I will now have two pieces of salvaged polished granite worktop, 1 off @ 900 long and 1off @ 600 long.

A nice decorative piece with drainage channels will also be salvageable if I can think of a use for it.

Happy days

Got my piece of polished Granite from kitchen worktop supplier... free gratis.

George.

My stepson is a kitchen fitter. Very cheerful today, cutting tiles all day, out in the snow being sprayed by cold water

Neil

I could do with something flat so will have to look round for kitchen worktop. But in mean time I'm using glass shelf out of old display unit not sure how flat glass shelf's are.

Also have a piece of plate glass in a home built wood frame (1st surface plate ), Float glass can also be considered very flat... but unless you want to check flatness against optical flat light bands, I think for our (my )  purposes kitchen granite offcuts / float / plate glass is more than sufficient...  Hmmmm...       last time I used optical flats was when I worked for a national valve co. lapping in discs & nozzles for high pressure safety valves using diamond impregnated liquid.

George

Edited By mechman48 on 15/01/2015 12:31:27

Optical flatness? Is the slab really within +/- 25nanometers?

Martin

I got a granite surface plate delivered from Axminster for about £30 and, now that I have it, I use it a lot for things which the aldi granite is unlikely to be suitable for (e.g. as a reference for scraping surfaces flat).

As comparison, I have a few meters of granite worksurface in the kitchen and it is nowhere near as flat as the cheap surface plate (also, I got in trouble when I covered the flattest part in engineer's blue).

Just starting out in this game, using one of these, for me it is flat for my limited skills and beats using the worktop of the bench.

So I suppose it is horses for courses