Making a lathe faceplate

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Jmanb13

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The old lathe I purchased came with several chucks but did not come with a faceplate.

I would just purchase a faceplate, but the lathe is a 15" 1946 leblond and has a 2 1/4" 5tpi threaded spindle. and 5TPI faceplates are not exactly common.

I was considering making a faceplate, but I don't know what material would be best. I assume cast iron is the ideal material, but its not exactly easy to find. Would making something out of aluminum be acceptable? or would there be some unknown issue out of that?

It seems that faceplates are usually mounted directly to the spindle, but, would mounting a faceplate to a threaded backplate (I have 2) be an option or would there be some problem with that?

Any suggestions on size?
 
I think cast iron would be considered best for several reasons. Foremost, it's simple to cast a large faceplate to near-finished dimensions, which saves valuable machining time in the production environment. Cast iron also tends to be very stable over time, so that you're not spending valuable setup time checking flatness and perpendicularity, and making skim cuts to correct these dimensions every time you go to use it.

I would not hesitate to make a face plate from aluminum and have done so several times in the past. Not the best choice, but entirely functional if thick enough to resist the clamping forces you'll be applying. In using softer materials for an application like this, I will always install Heli-Coil thread inserts into the tapped holes. Much stronger and more wear resistant than the parent metal, and well worth their relatively insignificant cost. Also, I'm a big fan of the Higbee thread on both my spindle nose and whatever I'm trying to screw on there. Properly executed, it makes faceplate attachment a breeze. Just rotate the faceplate backward while applying light pressure toward the headstock. When the Higbee ends meet and clear one another, you'll feel and hear a solid thunk. Simply reverse rotation to begin threading on your faceplate with perfect thread engagement. Higbee ends, as I cut them, also clean the mating threads as they are spun together. Another big plus!

Mounting to a threaded backplate is a fine option, especially if you are set up to machine precision dowel holes. I had such a configuration on a big old Reed (I think) lathe I owned many years ago. It also had an odd spindle thread and came with one small, but very stout faceplate. By the time I sold it, I believe there were four additional faceplates of varying configurations that could be doweled and bolted onto the original in a matter of minutes.

As to sizing, it seems the largest I've ever ran gave about two inches of clearance between the plate's OD and the bed ways. Of course, you can go much larger on a gap bed lathe, but as long as the OD comfortably clears everything, you should be good to go. The leading support arms of the carriage will be what usually causes interference and brother, things get downright festive and wastes no time doing it when the carriage starts feeding into your faceplate clamps! Always take a few seconds to confirm there's going to be no interference before getting underway.
 
Yes cast iron would be best & is usually what they are made of. For your 15" 12"-13" would be a good size.

Aluminum would work but it's soft I personally wouldn't make it out of aluminum if I were to make one, I would want it to more durable & last longer.

Mild steel would work but it will be a bit heavier than cast iron. Faceplates are usually cast with minimal material along with webbing on the back side of it to reduce weight. Material in that size would also be pretty expensive unless you have a cheap source or already have the material.

No issue that I could think of by bolting it onto an existing backplate except for adding weight. I would say the best choice would be to buy a faceplate on ebay & bolting that onto a backplate. May be cheaper & will save you a lot of time.

12" cast iron faceplate can be found for about $100. There's enough meat on it to remove the cam lock pins & bolt to a backplate.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/12-iron-cas...126661?hash=item339f7d6285:g:TUAAAOSwm8VUtqnN

Here's a 13" that costs a bit more. If you have a way to hold it & machine it, you machine out the existing thread, insert a sleeve or braze fill it, then machine new threads that fits your spindle. Pretty close, too bad this one is only 1 TPI off.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/13-Metal-Mi...943584?hash=item33ca92b220:g:CgcAAOSw32lYyswe

There's others on ebay that might be worth looking at. You could ask the sellers that are selling 12"-13" D1-4 cam lock faceplates what size the bore is. If it's small enough you could just bore & thread it for your spindle size.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/13-13-16-La...855571?hash=item41ab99c4d3:g:QnoAAOSwY0lXSfIc
 
It would be real easy to take one of the faceplates above with the D1-4 back, remove the camlock pins, and adapt to a back plate that you already have. Mount to the back plate with some larger socket head cap screws, say 1/2 or 5/8. This should be sufficient for any work that would be done using a face plate. Any face plate work being done is usually light duty cutting and finishing.
 
Thanks for the help guys. If I can find a cast iron faceplate that has a bore smaller than 1 7/8 with enough meat to thread it out to 2 1/8 5tpi and 1.5" thick I should be good to go, otherwise I will need to mount it to one of my existing back plates or make another one.
 
Jmanb13 said:
The old lathe I purchased came with several chucks but did not come with a faceplate.

I would just purchase a faceplate, but the lathe is a 15" 1946 leblond and has a 2 1/4" 5tpi threaded spindle. and 5TPI faceplates are not exactly common.

I was considering making a faceplate, but I don't know what material would be best. I assume cast iron is the ideal material, but its not exactly easy to find. Would making something out of aluminum be acceptable? or would there be some unknown issue out of that?

It seems that faceplates are usually mounted directly to the spindle, but, would mounting a faceplate to a threaded backplate (I have 2) be an option or would there be some problem with that?

Any suggestions on size?
Click to expand...

Consider a run to the second hand sports equipment shop and grabbing a 15 or 25 lb cast iron disc. You can the bore it, thread it, and turn it smooth for something cheap and effective. Then just drill whatever holes needed.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
 
silverhawk said:
Consider a run to the second hand sports equipment shop and grabbing a 15 or 25 lb cast iron disc. You can the bore it, thread it, and turn it smooth for something cheap and effective. Then just drill whatever holes needed.
Click to expand...

I used a weight that I had to make a chuck back plate. I had some from Canada and China. I used the Canadian one as it was a better casting. See the first picture below. The one on the left was Chinese and the one on the right was Canadian.

weights 1 s.jpg back 0 s.jpg

back 1 s.jpg
 
Any reason one can't thread a collar then put a male OD pilot, drill a hole thru a steel plate to mate with the pilot with a chamfer on the face side, weld the collar to the plate from both sides, then turn the plate to true it up?
 
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