The Surface plate purchases was a Crown Grade A. Total Size of 1200 x 900 x 150 mm. Estimated 750kg with stand.

I think it is safe to say that this luricrous and thrilling project was committed to, the moment I spotted this Granite surface plate dor sale on EBay. I had seen various smaller surface plates for sale and none of them sparked my interest. I had also seen an 2500 x 1500mm one that would have been lovely if i had a 20 ton crane system in my back garden. But then this item popped on line. It was from an engineering company in Ireland that had purchased themselves a bigger replacement and this one was no longer required. I paid £450 for the item and it belive it was £70 to arrange the transportation from Ireland to North Lincolnshire.

While waiting on delivery I prepared an area in the workshop. I laid in some metal clad 13amp sockets for drills and grinders and whatever and temporarily installed some small workbenches either side of where the Surface plate was going to reside.

Sent the daughter to do her child labour duties with a clean up once it arrived.

I spoke with a handyman in the village who has trailers and mini diggers and allsorts at his disposable. I also spoke with a local farmer who had a heavy weight two forked Manitou that i could use if push came to shove. We tried to lift it with a Mini-Digger but it wasn't capable of handling the load. Unfortunately i didn't manage to get any photos of this. The next plan was to drive all the parts to the other side of the village whereby a lorry yard had a Forklift capable of lifting it. Unfortunately the FLT was not road worthy, so we had to take the gear to it.

In preparation for future works, I bolted some castors onto the base, to be able to move the unit around while i was working on it. These were only ever intended to be a temporary installation as anti vibration feet were planned for the compelted installation. We took the Granite for a drive through the village on the back of a tractor whereby i ended up having to sit on the front of the tractor as the weight was just on the wrong side of the tipping point when on a slight incline.