Thread: face plate question

dont know how big or out of balence thewood is but try the biggest screws you can put in without going to deep for what you are doing.Or slow rite down untill you are balanced.Or glue to your face plate with hot glue

Toni, screws should have a coarse thread like a coach bolt and should be the same size as the hole in the face plate.

Anything that is fine can't get a bite on the timber

I hate killing good timber with screws big enough to withstand my poor skills, and there is no assurance that the thickness of the base one wants to achieve is sufficient to hold screws adequate for the job. For this reason, my choice is to screw solidly a piece of scrap wood and glue this to the piece.

Toni,
I use gyprock or particle board screws, they have a coarse thread. If you are into bowls, I would recommend you screw a 19mm thick waste block onto the face plate and glue the bowl blank on to the waste block. Cut the bowl off with a handsaw and clean up the bottom with a hand plane and sandpaper. If you are into vase shape forms, them use a 50mm thick waste block with a 50mm hole bored into it. Turn a spigot on the blank between centres. with the spigot to match the hole on the waste block. Again cut off the finished project with a hand saw and sand the bottom.
Jim

Toni,
I turn mostly large unbalanced green wood , and never had a piece fly off. From my experience the amount of screws is more important then the size of them. try adding more screws, that if you have more holes in the face plate.

Guy

Sheet metal screws work better than wood screws. Also available with a hex head for more robust tightening, but don't overdo it. For best purchase in the wood, pre-bore slightly smaller than the root diameter of the screw. Glued-on waste block is best if your workpiece isn't thick enough to accommodate screw length; not good when you nick a chisel with a screw. A sheet of kraft paper (e.g. shopping bag) in the glue joint makes separation easier via knife or hand chisel. Some folks swear by hot-melt glue, but not so great if you're turning near the joint and the wood warms up from cutting/bevel riding.

Joe

Toni - End-grain or cross-grain???? All the above suggestions are fine for cross grain but if you're still doing your lidded boxes, you're trying to screw into end-grain which will rarely hold properly. Better to screw a piece of waste on cross-grain, turn a recess in the face of it to fit your blank (which you turned a spigot on between centres earlier) and glue the blank into it as Jim suggested.

If this doesn't make sense to you, PM me and I'll do some pics.

I am not it is a bowl blank that I got off my wood fairy a long time ago so I am not sure whether it is cross or end grain, but can you tell me what is a spigot? Sorry

Originally Posted by lubbing5cherubs

I am not it is a bowl blank that I got off my wood fairy a long time ago so I am not sure whether it is cross or end grain, but can you tell me what is a spigot?

A spigot is the rounded piece on the end of the blank that you turn (usually between centres) to fit inside the chuck jaws.

Other options, if you're screwing into end-grain is to hot-melt glue a largish disk of scrap-wood or ply (I don't recommend MDF) to the end of the blank. You can then screw the faceplate to that, or turn a recess for the chuck, or glue/screw another smaller disk to act as the spigot.

There's really a lot of different ways of doing more or less the same thing.

ok thanks this is all learning curve.
Toni

Toni,
I use the spigot idea but PVA is the glue I prefer. I often glue several in advance. Not really that fond of the the hotmelt.

TONY send me your mailing address and ill send you a disk its got most of what ive scanned and down loaded over the last 2 years ? do you have a dvd reader if not ill send several CDs there's a lot of imfo ive collected .about 2-3 gig

have pmed you thanks mate
Toni

Toni,

can you use the tailstock and "true up" the piece. If it's out of balance there are a lot more stresses involved and once in balance you shouldn't have problems. Is the faceplate well seated on a flat surface, no gaps??

Peter