I've got 2 work tables but have the chance to buy an Acorn plate, 96x60 w/ 1 1/2" square holes.  seems in good shape.  I've never used one so the question is this, just how useful are they and what are they worth?  I'd have to travel about 500 miles to get it (one way).

James

Extremely useful for some things and not at all for others; did you forget to mention the type of stuff you do or plan to do in the future?

 

Depends on the seller. My friend in CA was selling 60"x60" platen tables for $250 each. He pulled over 50 of them out of the floor of Pacific Steel when they closed up.

That was certainly a great price. If the price was really good, I'd take one even though I don't really have a place for one or really a need for a fixtring jig that big. When you need one though, they are a godsend.

Tech school had a little 4x4 that they made a bunch of bending jigs for. It was nice for horsing heavy stock around on and it didn't move at all.

Issue I see is in transport. something that size wouldn't fit in the bed of a standard pick up. weight would crush the body if you tried to set it catty corner in the bed. Even my truck with the 5' x 11' bed probably wouldn't work as the tolerance on the sides is probably too tight. Even hauling it on my 7K landscape trailer wouldn't work well possibly. You don't have enough reach with a forklift over  the fenders. It would have to be set with a crane. Same with removal at home. Box truck would be an issue unless you have fork extenders so you can end load it.

One of my trailers is an 8' wide deck over, so no wheelwells to deal with. The weight would depend on the thickness if the plate. The one I missed came out of my Dad's classroom at the shipyard. It was 5' square and around 10" thick, it was the beefiest one I have ever seen. 

 

You will have to decide how much it is worth to you  But I find mine very useful for bending using tools in the holes and for flattening things by dogging them down and then using a flatter  or top swage and sledge to hammer high points down.