Thread: Face plate?

Originally Posted by A.WILLIAMS

I was just wondering what a face plate is exaclty for and how to properly use one, I made my self one not sure if its going to work yet seemed to of left my drill bits and drill at home. The way that i made my face plate was I went to a local welding shop that do plasma and lazer cut outs of different things, luckily they were cutting some sort of round things so they had plently of 1/4" round steel plate, what i did was find the center of the plate and drilled a 3/8" hole i then found a nut that would fit my head stock spindle and centerd it on the plate and welded it in place. I then took a 2 3/4"X 3/8" lag bolt and cut off about 1 1/2" of the lag and welded that on the oposite side of my nut, pointy side up. Every thing lined up really well. When useing a face plate are you still suppose to use the tail stock or not, I also plan on makeing me a stabilizer system out of some roller blade wheels and some 3/4-7/8" ply wood.

Some holes drilled through the plate would heplp it attaching wood to the plate.
I don't use the tailstock usually. The main use for a faceplate is to secure a bowl blank and turn the outside of the bowl. You then turn remove it and secure it o a chuck if you have one and then hollow out the bowl.
If you dont have a chuck then I would turn a foot on the outside of the bowl first. I then screw a bit of crapaita on to the faceplate and turn a hole to tightly fit the foot of the bowl into. You can glue it in for added security with a bit of paper between the 2 bits of wood. Then hollow out the bowl.
I hope this helps

Hi A. Williams

What you have made appears to be a screw chuck on a metal backing plate and not a face plate as such.

A face plate would not have the protruding screw section in front of the plate, but would have a series of holes - usually 4 - spaced, around the plate, equidistant from the centre of the plate. You can have a couple of rows any distance from the centre, but not too many to weaken the strength of the plate. Your wood is then screwed to the face plate with screws that come from the back of the plate into the timber.

Word of warning, it is usually recommended that a screw chuck or face plate is only used with cross grain timber (bowl blanks etc.) and not end grain timber.

Would probably be a good idea for you to go to your local library and look for books on woodturning. In Australia, I would recommend Turning Wood or a Complete Illustrated Guide to Turning, both by Richard Raffan. However you willl benefit by reading any books written on the subject.

As for using the tailstock... YES! Use the tailstock whenever you can, as it provides extra support. Support = safety.

There are times it just gets in the way, or some blanks where it just won't work (like... turning a donut. ) Fine, don't use it then. But in general, it's always better to use it.

Only in the last few decades of wood turning has the chuck been a common addition to the lathe. Primarily the turners of trade utilized the spindle and the faceplate. The faceplate mounts to the spindle either by threads or on some older lathes with a set screw. (I have both types) Face plates as a rule have a seriws of holes through which mounting screws can be used to secure the work to the plate. This of course will leave screw holes in the work, so often a piece of sacrifice wood as first attached toi the work piece so that the screwholes would not interfier with the finished project. This sacrifice wood would later be removed and discarded. A whole string can be devoted to that procedure.

Untill a year or so ago I was limited to only Spindle turning and face plate turn as I had no chuck or a lathe to accept a chuck. sense then I have widened my scope of turning and added a lathe to which a 4 jaw chuck attaches and another that will accept a Talon chuck, but I still use the faceplate for several different applications.

I begin turning bowls with the faceplate and screw the blank to the faceplate , (Using the Tailstock) I shape the outside of the bowl and cut in a spickot or a recess to fit the chuck I am using. Change out the piece and convert to a chuck. If I am turning a large bowl I flatten the bottom and add a piece of sacrifice wood to hide the screw hole, attach the face plate, and flip the piece over and re mount to clear the center of the bowl

Also have several jig mounted to faceplates. Such as a ring mount where the finished bowl is held tight to a round disk by compression ring and the bottom is trued up and possible feet are cut in.

I have purchaed face plates and devised some by welding a nut to a metal disk as you discribed but left off the screw center. I had my S-I-L (Machinist) mount it on a metal lathe and spin true the face, as seldom does simple welding provide a flate face. I have also made some by drilling and taping threads in a block of wood that I paperglue to a work piece making the sacrifice wood and faceplate all in one.

Don't degrade the faceplate as it has a meriad of uses and in many cases outperforms the chuck. I still rely on the faceplate and always will.