Brian- The fork clamp is a Brighneli, a bit crude but very effective. I'm gaining respect for Joe's stuff. (The back story for this is an off list one...).

The surface plate is a cast steel one. 24"x36" and hand scraped, there's a decal stating the flatness per foot on it. Purchased used for a tool dealer in Cleveland for a B-day present. Put a hole in the interior of my car getting home! I have drilled a few holes in it to bolt the fork clamp and the BB post down. The drilling went far easier then I thought it would.

The plate is one of the best tools I have gotten. Having a real surface as a reference is a big help to know what you're doing. It makes you so much more aware of how metal and heat react. It lets you put numbers to what you otherwise only see as cracks of light between parts. It grounds you. But it won't replace skills and technique.

One of the focae that i have had over the years is how braze ons are dealt with, and the resulting cable/brake/water bottle routing/positioning issues. The chain peg is only a small example of this anality. I place my cable stops at angles that reflect the cable's actual path. Not the tube centers. Painters have called me to question my 'crooked' stops... Andy.