OldRookie - No, those aren't my pics - I saw them in a thread too, but don't remember which one. The plate I'm building on now is the Great Planes board. It's galvanized steel 18" x 48". It's good up to about a .40 size plane. It doesn't rust.

My plan in the very near future is to go check out the local metals guy's shop and see what he has. He said the steel plate he has will rust. My shop is not climate controlled and I live in Florida, so that will be a problem. My scroll saw table rusts, but I keep it waxed and it's not much of a problem. I expect I can put a few good coats of car wax on a steel building board and not have rust problems there either.

I have a 1/2" glass bench top as well. I plan to get an 8' x 2' sheet of steel to build on. I'm not sure what I'll buy yet. I'll have to go see what the guy has and decide then.

The main point I was trying to make is that sheets of steel are not nearly as expensive as I expected. $37 is nothing for a decent building board.