How many faceplates do you need? If you are going to make faceplates for sale or for others, how many are you planning to make? I keep about 7 for my own use. If you only want 2 or 3 buy them don't think about making them. I have made over 100 for others. It takes me about 3 full days to make 20-30 faceplates. Nuts welded to a metal disk is the way I make faceplates. I use ready made nuts because they are available and they have outside shoulders to match the wrenches that come with my lathes. I prefer a wrench to free the faceplate from the lathe rather than a pipe wrench or a bar in a hole.
If you are going to make faceplates maybe the following steps will discourage you.
Materials:
- Standard and Special machine nuts are available for the threads on most lathes. Since making the machine thread is very time consuming it is much easier to purchase ready made nuts.
- 1"-8 threads per inch nuts are the easiest to find at local hardware stores for about $1.50 each. These fit most lathes of 12" swing or less. For those with an older lathe that provides for turning to the left of the headstock, left hand threaded nuts of this size are available.
- 1 ¼"-8 threads per inch nuts are not a standard nut size. Don't purchase the common 1 ¼"-7 tpi as it won't fit any common lathe. 1 ¼"-8 tpi is the thread size on most larger lathes except One Way that has a Metric thread size, and I have not found a source for nuts to fit a One Way lathe. MSC does stock 1 ¼"-8 tpi nuts in quantities of about 25 per box. The price is close to $3 per nut. These are also available individually at some industrial fastener stores.
- ¼" thick by 3" or 3 ½" round metal disks are not easy to come by for the face of the faceplate, I make them by sawing solid hot roll steel rods into ¼" thick disks. For the smaller nuts I use 3" diameter rod and 3.5" for the larger nuts. (Faceplate of these sizes can be used to hold very large turnings as long as heavy screws are used for mounting.) With these disks there is room to weld the nut to the disks and still have room for the screw mounting holes. (Sawing the disks takes an automatic feed metal cutting bandsaw and a bimetal bandsaw blade with 3 teeth per inch. I tried using ¼" steel plate to cut out disks with a cutting torch and plasma cutter. The edge of these cut pieces were so hard to true on the metal lathe that I went to cutting the rod stock.)
- 1/8" 7014 welding rod for easy welding.
Screws for Mounting Faceplates - I have a "thing" about secure mounting on the lathe. Chucks have given me problems but never faceplates as long as I use Flat Head Phillips heavy screws, #12, 1" long for screwing into ¾" thick waste blocks and #12, 1 ½" long screws for end grain mounting or directly into the turning. Must be Flat Head that hold tight in the countersink of the faceplate, and of course light weight turnings do not need the longer screws. I turn chunks of wood weighing 40# or so with no problems with these large screws. Smaller screws, especially the popular sheet rock screws or deck screws should not be used as they break very easily. |
2 faceplates with the 1¼" nuts and 1 of the 1" nuts. Also the #12 Phillips Flat Head Screws that I prefer to use. |
Tools needed to follow these steps -
- Automatic feed metal cutting bandsaw with bimetal 3 teeth to the inch blade.
- Metal lathe with tailstock drill chuck.
- Drill press
- Bench grinder with wire wheel
- Welder
- Welding and Machining Studs - 4" long threaded 1"-8 tpi bolt with the hex head cut off. Mount the remaining bolt, now called a stud, in the metal lathe chuck with thread out side the chuck jaws. Drill and tap a 1" deep ¼"-20 tpi hole on center in the stud. Do the same for a 4" long piece of 1 ¼" all-thread (bolts of this size are probably not available).
- Make a Drilling Template. Take one of the disks before drilling the center hole and lay out the center hole, easy with the metal lathe to mark the center. Then while the template disk is still in the lathe chuck bring a cutting tool up to the disk face and mark a circle about 3/8" from the edge of the disk. With a divider mark 6 hole points on the circle the distance from the center of the disk to the marked circle. This will give 6 evenly spaced holes in the disk for screw mounting. Drill each of the marked points with a ¼" drill. Also drill the center hole in this drilling template.
- Make a Drilling Jig from ¾" plywood with a 1 ½", ¼"-20 tpi flat head bolt pushed through a ¼" counter sunk hole, with the thread side up. Add a removable wing nut for holding the disks in place for drilling the screw mounting holes.
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Step 1 - Cut the ¼" disks for the size nuts to be used to make the faceplates. 3" disks can be used for both faceplate, however, the larger nuts must be turned smaller on the metal lathe in the area that will be welded to the disk.
Step 2 - Mount each disk in the headstock chuck of the metal lathe and drill a ¼" center hole.
Step 3 - Place a disk on the drilling jig. Place the drilling template on top of the disk and tighten the disks together with the wing nut. Drill all 6 screw mounting holes in each disk using the drilling template. Drill the first hole and put a ¼" bolt in that hole to hold the Drilling Template in position for the remaining 5 holes.
Step 4 - Weld the nuts to the disks. Screw a nut on to the stud of the right size. Take a 1", ¼"-20 tpi hex head machine screw and place it in the center hole of a disk. Thread this machine screw into the stud and tighten firmly holding the disk to the stud. Now tighten the nut to the disk and weld in place. Follow this step to weld the rest of the nuts to the disks.
Step 5 - Once the disks are cool, clean the welded surfaces with a wire wheel on a bench grinder. Also countersink each of the 6 holes on the nut side of the newly welded faceplate. Can't really call this a faceplate yet till it is trued and finished on the metal lathe in the next steps.
Step 6 - Mount a faceplate on the appropriate stud and then mount the stud in the metal lathe chuck with the nut firmly against the chuck jaws. Turn on the lathe and surface the face of the faceplate. Also true the edge of each faceplate disk. While the faceplate is still mounted on the metal lathe, drill the ¼" center hole out to 1" for the 1"-8 tpi faceplates. Drill and use a boring bar if necessary to enlarge the ¼" hole on the 1 ¼"-8 tpi faceplates to 1 ¼". The enlarged holes allow the faceplates to bottom on the wood lathe hub.
Step 7 - Counter sink the holes on the face of each faceplate. This will allow the wood displaced as the mounting screw is forced in to the wood, space to expand and not raise the faceplate from the wood surface by this displaced wood.
Step 8 - Mount each faceplate in the metal lathe chuck with the face of the faceplate against the chuck. With a boring bar remove about ¼" of the thread to provide clearance when the faceplate is screwed on the wood lathe headstock shaft up to the hub.
Step 9 - Test each faceplate on a wood lathe of the proper thread size. Assure the faceplates screw on and off easily. Prime and paint each completed faceplate.
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