"mongke" wrote in message
...
Hi all,

I'm having difficulty getting cold rolled steel for the ways. Someone told
me stainless steel plate is as flat as cold rolled. It this true?
Another suggestion I got was to get a slab of 1" thick of hot rolled and
have it milled on both sides down to 1/2" or so.
At one place I can get a plate of 24"x2.5"x1/4", which would be 1/2" less
than Gingery specifies. Would that affect the capabilites of the lathe?
And how to tell it's actually CR? Any other material suitable for ways?

Any advice thanked in advance.

Regards,

Mongke

As long-term readers of the group know, we usually stay out of the
conversations on this group - you're all more than capable of finding us (I
think my last post was about 6 months ago). I just wanted to take a moment
to clear up a couple of things that came up in the thread:

1. We use the terms CF (cold finish) and CR (cold rolled) interchangeably on
the site. Probably a little sloppy, but the material is the same. It does
have the square corners and shiny finish that one of the posters describes.

2. Both posters were correct on the pricing, but in different ways. I think
you all finally figured out what was going on, but I just wanted to make
sure we were clear...1018 is available in two different forms - as CR/CF,
and as precision ground. The CR/CF is available in pretty much any length
up to 96" (240" if you're in Seattle and can pick up). It is by far the
less expensive of the two, and the category can be found at
http://www.onlinemetals.com/merchant.cfm?id=199&step=2. The precision
ground is available only in 24" lengths. This category can be seen at
http://www.onlinemetals.com/merchant...2&showfrac=yes.
Judging by the way the conversation went, I'm assuming that the original
poster could probably use the CR/CF material.

Should you have any questions, comments, or barbed criticisms, please feel
free (as usual) to let us know...

Chris Sypolt
OnlineMetals.com
Small Quantities, No Minimums