# D1-4 Dog Plate



## petertha (Dec 14, 2016)

Up until now I haven't had the need to use lathe dogs too much for centered turning work, but now I do. I bought some bent ear dogs which I (naively) assumed engaged the slots of a face plate. I see 2 issues with this:
- the larger dogs will not fit in the 1/2" wide slot, the material is too thick. I could grind some of the bent ear material away but I suspect that's not proper
- spacing wise, the position of the faceplate to MT center to work/dog does not look right to my eye. The end of the work is outboard quite a bit vs. compact to the faceplate. My lathe uses an MT5/MT3 socket & then MT3 dead center in that. I noticed the MT3 centers I gave are slightly different length, but even the shorter one looks to extend out a bit.

I googled & found some images like attached. I now think what I'm looking for is a specific 'dog plate' if that's what they are called. But I don't see such a beast for D1-4, or at least thus far. I could probably make one by repurposing a lathe chuck adapter if push comes to shove with slots or provisions for pins. Any comments welcome, maybe I'm barking up the wrong tree.

ps - I've also see where people chuck some stock, turn a 60-deg point in-situ to act as a center, mount the work & bent ear dog & let that rest on the chuck jaws. I think this might actually be faster option if I only do this operation rarely. Of course its not hardened or anything. Is this considered proper setup? I'm more-so thinking about side load on the chuck jaw here.


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## Glenn Brooks (Dec 14, 2016)

I have the same problem.  d1-5 cam lock arrangement on my headstock and nothing, nada, available in the way of a dog driver. Why these things aren't out there, or have impossibly small slots cut in them, I do not know.  I suppose the death of manual machining in industry has caused these things to go extinct.

So, I've found five possible solutions:

1). Turn down some 3/4" plate to make a dog driver that you can bolt to a backing plate off a chuck,
2). Take an old chuck and turn it down and slot it to accept the leg of a bent dog driver. (Probably won't work unless the chuck is solid thru and thru),
3) fab up a dog driver and add the cam lock studs ( seems like a lot of work),
4) as you said, grind down the dog leg to fit
5) make an "h" clamp (don't know the proper term) to attach to the center in the head stock spindle, and drive the dog off of that.  This H clamp is the same kind of fixture that you would find on a dividing head center.  Use the clamp rather than a dog driving plate.

I've decided to try making a dedicated dog driving plate attached to a backing plate off an old discarded chuck for my 12x48 Utilate, and just got a small threaded backplate that I will slot and try out for my small 7" Dalton .


Edit:  just read another thread and actually, maybe here is your solution - drill or slot to fit your dogs.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/10-1-2-Lath...in-Back-USA-/131740411665?hash=item1eac572711


Good luck,
Glenn


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## jbolt (Dec 14, 2016)

I make my own dogs and also make a pin to fit in one of the cam locks to drive the dog, no plate required. 

This one is aluminum for light duty work. I have others out of steel for more serious work.



This is a similar one showing how it is mounted.


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## Bob Korves (Dec 14, 2016)

I have at least a dozen dogs but the few times I have needed one it was just easier to build one than to modify what I have.  You can also chuck a piece of round stock in a chuck, turn it to a 60 degree point, and then use the chuck jaws as the driver.  Any chuck will work.  I bought a d1-4 back plate to make a dog driver, thought about how to best design it for working on most anything, finally just put it aside with a piece of steel plate to adapt as necessary when the actual need is known, and then continue to adapt it for other future jobs as needed.


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## f350ca (Dec 14, 2016)

The slots in the dog plate for my Hardinge are too narrow for all but the smallest dogs. The Chinese ones we get today are probably a lot heavier to give them sufficient strength. I just grind them down to fit. 
The Summit has a 3 inch through bore, the time it takes to remove the chuck, clean the bore taper, clean the adapter and find a centre then play with it to get no runout isn't worth it. I chuck a cut off in the 3 jaw, quickly turn a 60 degree point, which then has zero runout and let the dog run on one of the jaws.

Greg


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## rgray (Dec 14, 2016)

jbolt said:


> I make my own dogs and also make a pin to fit in one of the cam locks to drive the dog, no plate required.



That's how I do it also. My drive arms(to fit the cam lock) are from aluminum and I have several lengths to fit different dogs.


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## Glenn Brooks (Dec 15, 2016)

These are great solutions.  Clearly I've been overthinking this!


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## petertha (Dec 24, 2016)

The dedicated dog plates look heavier duty than a faceplate. I thought about making one & marrying it to a D1-4 chuck adapter. OTOH life would be a lot simpler if I could just make a few do-dads to utilize the faceplate. What do you think of these? The pink block is intended to drive a bent eared dog. The green cylindrical post is intended to drive a straight dog. Both have a boss that matches the faceplate slot & threaded hole(s) so they are retained in position with like 1/4-20 cap screws from behind.


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## British Steel (Dec 30, 2016)

Similar to Jay's, I use a camlock pin threaded into a (larger diameter) post, the thread lets me tighten down on the spindle face when required, and use nylon cable ties to tie the dog's tail and prevent the clacka-clack noises 

Dave H. (the other one)


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