I believe this would be the place to place this kind of info. :-\
Not much is ever shown on faceplate work on a lathe. It's usally about the 3 jaw and 4 jaw chuck. Well, what happens when neither will do to hold the work because it's odd shaped or just can't be held in a jawed chuck. You would use the face plate. The newbie may be asking at this time, "What's a face plate?".
Below is a picture of a face plate. On it is mounted a sacirfical aluminum faceplate bolted on from the back. The blue part on the lathe will get mounted on the plate. Note that the blue part, the bottom part of a water well cap, is in two pieces. That's why the faceplate is used. I need to make the dia. 5.5". When made the cap is 6" dia.
![](http://www.kingstonemodeleng.com/HMEMPics/faceplate.jpg)
Here the blue plate is mounted to the aluminum plate with 4 1/4-20 screws and a center draw rod to hold everything nice and tight. You'll notice I've changed lathes. The little 9X19 Grizzly belt slipped just trying to take a skim cut on the od of the part.
![](http://www.kingstonemodeleng.com/HMEMPics/faceplate1.jpg)
And here is the finished part. It also shows the "all-thread' rod I used as a draw rod to give the part more holding power.
![](http://www.kingstonemodeleng.com/HMEMPics/faceplate2.jpg)
This is one way to use a face plate. You can consider it a table that is horzontially held to do work. This could have been done on a mill with a rotory table or a CNC mill that can cut circles. Many ways of doing it, but when all you've got is a lathe, it's the best way.
![:)](https://madmodder.net/Smileys/default/side2side.gif)
Bernd