Tooshed's Lathe Faceplate

[Toolshed]

Thought I would document my lathe faceplate build I've done so far.

Pattern made.  Not the best wood, cedar being so soft, but it was the thickness I needed.

Rammed up with the sprue cutter inserted.  The sprue will be used as the piece I machine into the #2 morse taper.

Shakeout

Chucked up with my homemade live center in the tailstock.

Drilled and tapped a hole to use as the drive dog for cutting the morse taper.

Cut the taper

Test it out

Face it off

[Toolshed]

Cutting and tapping holes for mounting hardware.

All drilled and tapped

Made a drawbar, the handle is part of the sprue I cut off from this project.  reduce, reuse, recycle!

[DavidA]

Toolshed,

I take it you don't envisage any problems with the dissimilar metals where the faceplate is pulled into the headstock ?

Dave

(I assume it is made from Al alloy )

[Toolshed]

Someone had mentioned the aluminum possibly galling in the head, but I doubt I'll ever put enough strain on it to cause rotation in the sleeve.  The drawbar keeps it nice and snug....

((He says this NOW....Just wait until fate gets it's claws on that taper.  MUAHAHAHA     ))

[Sackett]

Nice job casting n machining Toolshed. looks a bit far from spindle nose,, but should be fine. Is that a 6 in or 12 lathe???   6 here

[RobWilson]

Odd having  a MT mounted face plate     .why did you not make  it so that it would just screw onto the  lathe spindle nose , it would be a lot more  rigid setup .

Rob

[Toolshed]

Because I can cut a morse taper.  I don't have gears for cutting threads.

[southbendkid]

Nice, Why haven't I seen it before Rob?  I didn't put slots in my homemade face plate either, just tapped holes. Galling is only a problem when the metals are similar.

[daGrouch]

Nice work.  Do you use it for turning wood or metal?
I want to make one for my metal lathe but am concerned about resonance and 'ringing' if used for metal working.
Can anyone with experience let me know how it's working?

[mechman48]

Nice work Toolshed...Have you considered any imbalance into the equation... where you've drill/tapped one location have you done the same diametrically opposite as some look offset, or is my eyesight getting worse   

George.

[Toolshed]

To a slight degree, Yes.  I kept the numbers even so they would be opposites.  As far as making sure every ring matched with the other rings not really.  I "tried" to make sure they didn't all line up excepting the 4 and 12 rings, because I wanted those to be the endpoints if I wanted to cut 4 slots.  You can see how those line up on the rough sections

I doubt I would be getting near speeds where it would matter much.  That, and most of the stuff I produce isn't of the quality that would even be noticed.  I produce parts for myself, and those are typically tested to failure rather quickly.

I haven't even had time to use this thing.  Busy with other projects.