Granite Counters

[62METEOR]

A friend of mine is remodeling his kitchen. He gave me all of his old kitchen cabinets and the granite countertops to use in the garage I am building. My question is what to do with the countertops. I work on old cars - will the countertops be a good surface for this or should I cover them with something? What would be a could cover? Thanks

 

[akdiesel]

I would say NO to granite in general. Like cement it is strong but impact resistant. Even if you cover it with somthing i could crack from impacting.
Great for light duty stuff like designing, fabric work, or even some electric work but not engine or metal work.

 

[JimVonBaden]

Use the granite for outdoor patio counter spaces.

Jim

 

[justanengineer]

Honestly, I wouldnt use either the cabinets or countertops unless you need a light duty bench for electronics, drinks, etc.

 

[Zeke]

Not everyone builds truck transmissions on their bench. Depends on what you plan to do. Lots of garages here that never see anything more on the benchtop than a bottle of wax and a can of beer. And a laptop.

Or is that a can of wax and a bottle of beer?

 

[Vegaman_Dan]

True, not everyone does transmission work on a workbench, but it IS a workbench, so even dropping a hammer accidentally is enough to crack the counter.

It would be a good surface for any chemical/solvent/paint space though.

 

[wssix99]

Use the granite for outdoor patio counter spaces.

Jim

^^^ This is a great idea. A granite counter top installer can cut it down and polish the edges to be anything you want.

Its really too brittle to be a practical "work bench" and its porous - so it will soak up oils and anything else you spill on it. (This is a problem in kitchens, as well and requires regular sealing.)

 

[Jim Johnstone]

I have a chunk of granite that I will be using for a workbench top. I still plan on having traditional wood top benches for the rough work and the granite for a clean bench and possibly use as a makeshift lapping table. Obviously a granite countertop is a bit different but look in any machine shop around the world and you will find granite surface plates everywhere. The one mold making shop I worked for used one of our really huge granite surface plates for mold assembly putting together half ton molds.

 

[ringneck]

As mentioned earlier, it depends on need. I am thinking of putting a piece of granite in my shop to act as an inspection surface. Tolerances won't be great, but gives more room and is likely good enough for a lot of things. I think it may help me keep a space clear for when I need to break out the inspection block, since flat surfaces seem to collect stuff.

Not sure if it is a good idea, as I tend to view any flat surface as fair game for beating on things. Yes, I lack discipline.

 

[Herb]

Make sure to seal it and keep applying sealer on a regular basis if you use it, and be sure to clean any oil off of it asap or it will get stained.

 

[wssix99]

As mentioned earlier, it depends on need. I am thinking of putting a piece of granite in my shop to act as an inspection surface. Tolerances won't be great, but gives more room and is likely good enough for a lot of things. I think it may help me keep a space clear for when I need to break out the inspection block, since flat surfaces seem to collect stuff.

Not sure if it is a good idea, as I tend to view any flat surface as fair game for beating on things. Yes, I lack discipline.

Granite works when you have a solid base under it. (Just like concrete.) When it goes on top of a bench and has hollow space under it, it can break easily.

 

[Cobra5150]

....Obviously a granite countertop is a bit different but look in any machine shop around the world and you will find granite surface plates everywhere. The one mold making shop I worked for used one of our really huge granite surface plates for mold assembly putting together half ton molds.

A surface plate is many times thicker than standard residential grade counter top. Even with the thickness they are prone to chip. Some of our machines at work utilize granite for stability purposes and the gorillas at work manage to gouge them.

 

[Jim Johnstone]

A surface plate is many times thicker than standard residential grade counter top. Even with the thickness they are prone to chip. Some of our machines at work utilize granite for stability purposes and the gorillas at work manage to gouge them.

Lucky for me I dont employ any gorillas in my personal garage. Its common sense really. I wouldn't use granite for every bench in my shop but having one for clean assembly work makes sense to me.

Sent from my SGH-I727R using Tapatalk 2

 

[Cobra5150]

Just saying these slabs are 10-12" thick and if something is dropped they chip. Drop the same thing on a countertop and it would break. I like the idea of the smooth granite surface just be careful with it. I would think about a couple of layers of 3/4" ply as a base.

 

[Jim Johnstone]

Just saying these slabs are 10-12" thick and if something is dropped they chip. Drop the same thing on a countertop and it would break. I like the idea of the smooth granite surface just be careful with it. I would think about a couple of layers of 3/4" ply as a base.

I thought that would be obvious. I will have 1.5" of laminated plywood under mine. 10 to 12" would be a BIG surface plate. Most are about 4" for anything less than about a 4 foot square.

Hopefully I will have a 2 foot square surface plate in my shop soon too.

 

[Cobra5150]

Here's one about 7-8" thick. The ones I've seen thicker are usually behind sheet metal and can't get a good pic of it.

We can measure at least to 0.00005mm, maybe smaller. When it gets that far past the decimal point I get dizzy.

 

[Cobra5150]

Found one of the larger ones

You can see the surface plate at the rear. This one weighs in over 5200lbs.

 

[Jim Johnstone]

I never said there aren't extremely thick surface plates I just said the really thick ones tend to be very large plates. One shop I worked at had a huge starrett plate about 4x10 feet and 10 inches thick. Either way I still stand by my opinion that a granite countertop sufficiently supported could be a very useful workbench surface. Just dont use it to hammer things together.

I gotta track down an actual surface plate for my garage one of these days. Not easy to find used ones around here.

 

[GeorgiaHybrid]

I use a 3'x3' piece as a polishing plate. Stick some sandpaper on it and it becomes very handy in polishing the flats on hammers, triggers and sear sides. Anything that you want to have a flat, smooth surface on, it is a simple matter to achieve with a flat plate, some lube and the different grades of sandpaper.

 

[ddawg16]

I find my granite top to be very handy....

First off....it's a great place to sit and have a beer....

But since that does not happen much....it's a good place for paperwork. Great writing surface....and it tends to not collect the junk the rest of the benches do.

And my kids use it for homework on those days we have to keep the kids apart so they don't kill themselves....