Faceplate Question

[Robert Arnold]

Does anyone other than Oneway make larger faceplates for a M33 x 3.5 spindle? I'm looking for 6" and larger.

 

[Bill Boehme]

Possibly Best Wood Tools. I bought a 10" faceplate from Oneway while at SWAT last year. It uses the same tapered inserts as their Stronghold chuck so all that I needed to do was get a 1¼ X 8 insert. Why are you wanting a source besides Oneway ... high price perhaps?

 

[Robert Arnold]

Bill, Best Wood Tools goes to 6" but thats it. The price is a big concern but I also just wanted to see if there are any other options out there that I am not aware of.

 

[Bill Boehme]

I plan to use Baltic birch plywood to enlarge my 10" faceplate to about 16". I suppose that you could do something similar with a 6" faceplate. I don't know how often I will need it, but I have a large piece of mesquite about 30" diameter that is my immediate need.

 

[Perry Hilbert]

I purchased some lathe accessories on craigs list a few months ago. I traveled to Baltimore to meet the seller at his shop. A professional turner in a way. He manufactures fly wheels for machinery for which parts are no longer made. Inside his shop he had a GIANT metal lathe. Easily 16 ft long and a swing of about 60 inches. over the gap bed. I saw the 30 inch face plate and just said wow. Then he pointed to a face plate leaning against the wall that was 48 inches. As near as I could tell the head stock spindle was somewhere about 4 inches and his face plates were hefty pieces of metal with what appeared to be a few inches of laminated plywood to make the outer face. He lays/glues up the wood for a pattern and then turns the form and even cuts the gear teeth as necessary and has a foundry use the pattern for larger pieces and he molds and pours the smaller pieces. Now basically he is a machinist. But we talked about the larger face plates for a short while. He said making one up is really easy for a machine shop. It is a matter of threading the hole and truing and if necessary balancing the face. He made up outboard face plates for his old floor model Delta wood lathe. when he first started. He said he made a 4 ft metal face plate for a wood turner up here in PA some where who can turn items up to 10 ft in diameter on a home built lathe. the face plate weighs roughly 300 pounds and a small davet/crane is required to lift it into place. I just can't imagine something that huge spinning, even if it is only at 6 to10 rpms. I suppose it is a matter of how badly you want/need a larger face plate.

 

[john lucas]

My friend Joe Looper had a lathe with 54" swing. He had purchased a metal lathe that had a 7 foot face plate but unfortunately Joe passed away before he ever got that home and turned it into a wood lathe.

 

[John Tisdale]

Not sure if Best Tools' face-plate has set-screws but, if you're wanting a large face-plate, chances are it's for something big.
I use Oneway's 6" on almost everything - on Planet Mesquite I used the 8". Locking it on with the set-screws was not a choice.
For what it's worth, Best Tools has a super 1.5" spur drive that screws onto the M33. But not having set screws on it, you have to slowly decelerate.

 

[Mike Johnson]

If you can find a heavy nut the same thread as your lathe spindle you could weld the
nut to a flat piece of metal and then mount it on the lathe and finish turning and balancing
the face plate. Depending on the application adding plywood to a smaller diameter face
plate might be your answer. I have several plywood face plates that have 2" metal tenons
screwed to the plywood rounds and these are easily turned round and balanced on the wood
lathe. The 2" round tenon fits into my bowl chucks and I use several of them for sanding disks
with self adhesive sanding pads that glue onto the wood face plates.

 

[Leo Van Der Loo]

It is easy enough to make some faceplates, even yourselves If you can weld and do some machining, the parts are not costly as raw material.

I made small ones using a large heavy nut and a disk, and machined large ones from steel plate, though with sound wood the Faceplates do not need to be large to hold a big piece of wood.



I made the small and large faceplates for my lathe, I use a large Morse taper to hold the parts in my lathe, no un-screwing in either direction.


This less than 4 inch faceplate I use most often, here with 9 1” screws on a good size 21” X 8” piece of wet Sycamore, no need for a larger faceplate.

 

[Richard Hodsdon]

33x3.5mm is a standard ISO metric thread so any reputable nut and bolt supplier would keep this as a stock item. It is a commonly used size in the petrochemical industry and in the shipping world. You may find it has to be ordered depending where in the US you are but should be available over the counter in Canada. It is here in South Africa so just buy a nut and have it welded onto a steel disc true it up and you have a faceplate.

 

[Mike Johnson]

Another option is to purchase a threading tap the same as your spindle thread.
There are a variety of materials and metals that can be tapped with a thread and
be able to mount directly to your lathe. Some metals are easier to thread compared
to certain plastics and composites that can be easily threaded. You can mount the
piece you intend to thread in a chuck and use your tail stock and live center to keep
the tap centered while you use a wrench to cut your threads. This is a slow process
when threading hard metals. It gets easier with the softer metals aluminum & brass
and gets to be fun when you are working with polymers, composites and wood.