# Disposable faceplate's etc.



## Loose nut (Apr 20, 2008)

This might be well known to the more experienced machinists but it is a useful idea. MDO (medium density overlay) and MDF, basically plywood or particle board covered with a plasticized paper material, is dimensionally very accurate in thickness and it's sides are usually parallel to an .001" or so and has an excellent finish. 

You can clamp this material to a face plate or milling table and mount your work piece onto it and if you have to cut through the part the board takes the damage, just throw it away when it is to chewed up to use anymore.


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## BobWarfield (Apr 21, 2008)

Excellent tip on the MDF!

Another material that is similar is poly cutting board--the milky white colored stuff. It machines extremely well. Every now and then I come across a bundle of these on sale at a Target or once a big bunch on eBay. I pick them up because they're great sacrificial material. The stuff machines very nicely and can be used for various components too. Not quite as nice as UHMW, but close.

Best,

BW


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## alan2525 (Apr 21, 2008)

I wanted to cut some disks from copper by attaching them to a plywood faceplate and cutting them out on the lathe, whats the best adhesive to use? Would it be an idea to use the old woodturners method and bond onto a piece of paper, so the part can be removed with a chisel?

I tried the gluefilm that woodworkers use to apply laminate with a hot iron but the part got too warm and the bond melted!


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## tel (Apr 21, 2008)

Yep loose, I've been using MDF on faceplate, mill and drill presses for some years now - great value it is.


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## kellswaterri (Apr 21, 2008)

Great stuff ''MDF'' for sacrifical work tables, use it myself a lot...just remember to wear a dust mask when using it... full of ''FORMALDYHYDE'' ...not the best stuff for your lungs, can sort of Pickle them.
All the best for now,
              John.


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## Mcgyver (Apr 21, 2008)

> I wanted to cut some disks from copper by attaching them to a plywood faceplate and cutting them out on the lathe, whats the best adhesive to use?



you can use double sided tape, but depending on how thin you're talking, you can wreck the work trying to pry it off.

thin disks, without a hole can be a challenge. What i do is this:

- machine a disk of whatever close to the work's dia - face one side and centre drill the other. This is going to go between the work and a tailstock centre.
- hold in the three a jaw a piece of material around the disk's dia and face
- sandwich between the two the work and apply some pressure with the tailstock barrel.
- if you want more holding power, fold over a piece of fine paper backed emery and sandwich this between the disk and the headstock bung.

keep cuts very light, cutting force has to be below the friction as that's all that's holding it


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## snowman (Apr 21, 2008)

I don't know what it's called, but I used to use a really thin tape. I think it might have been carpet tape.

When removing, it's easier if you can throw it in the oven to loosen up the glue.


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## Loose nut (Apr 21, 2008)

The people that make the Mitee-Bite clamps sell a product called Mitee-Grip which is a sheet of dimensionally accurate paper coated with some type of glue. You just cut a piece of the paper and place it between the work and the faceplate and heat it with an iron or equivalent and it bonds. After turning or milling you just heat it again and the work piece comes off. I have used it several times and it works quite well and allows you do accurate work.


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## Bernd (Apr 21, 2008)

Loose nut  said:
			
		

> MDF, basically plywood or particle board covered with a plasticized paper material,



Since I'm sort of a "nitpicker" here I would like to say that MDF is medium density fiberboard. It is made from wood fibers and a glue. Plywood is individual layers of wood. The pieces are glued together cross grained. Particle board is actually large flakes of wood pressed together with a glue. 

Regards,
Bernd


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## alan2525 (Apr 21, 2008)

Loose nut  said:
			
		

> The people that make the Mitee-Bite clamps sell a product called Mitee-Grip which is a sheet of dimensionally accurate paper coated with some type of glue. You just cut a piece of the paper and place it between the work and the faceplate and heat it with an iron or equivalent and it bonds. After turning or milling you just heat it again and the work piece comes off. I have used it several times and it works quite well and allows you do accurate work.



That sounds like good stuff, the glue-film I was using is great for sticking sheet metal down when cutting with my cnc machine, as long as there are a couple of screws too. I've even cut out holes with a slot drill and it left the waste piece approx 2mm diameter piece of brass still attached to the sacrificial plate!


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## Loose nut (Apr 21, 2008)

The Mitee-Grip is made specifically for work holding while machining, it will hold your workpiece accurately onto a faceplate or a fixture for milling BUT the faceplate etc. must be faced properly for it to be any good. If your faceplate or milling fixture is out of wack then the finished piece will not be machined properly. I usually skim the fixture in place first to make it square to the machine, then fix the work piece to it in place. Needless to say, light cuts are the rule, a heavy cut will peal it off.

You will probably have to go to an industrial supply house or possibly a tool supplier to find it, I get mine at Wholesale Tool.


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## Loose nut (Apr 21, 2008)

Bernd  said:
			
		

> Since I'm sort of a "nitpicker" here I would like to say that MDF is medium density fiberboard. It is made from wood fibers and a glue. Plywood is individual layers of wood. The pieces are glued together cross grained. Particle board is actually large flakes of wood pressed together with a glue.
> 
> Regards,
> Bernd



Sorry, I was implying that MDO was plywood and MDF was particle board, MDO is what highway sign boards are made of (or use to be).


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## steamer (Apr 21, 2008)

Make a disposable face plate and cut concentric grooves in the face.

You can then get superglue to dry very well, and it holds for most small jobs.

I don't recommend any cement mixer parts....but watch, and clock and small engine parts hold just fine.

You can do this trick on the mill too!

To take the part off, wave a torch or spirt lamp at the part,,( don't incinerate it, just warm it up ) and the glue will let go. Acetone will clean them up just fine.

Dave


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## Lew Hartswick (Apr 21, 2008)

Bernd  said:
			
		

> Since I'm sort of a "nitpicker" here I would like to say that MDF is medium density fiberboard. It is made from wood fibers and a glue. Plywood is individual layers of wood. The pieces are glued together cross grained. Particle board is actually large flakes of wood pressed together with a glue.
> 
> Regards,
> Bernd


Being another "nit picker",  In Particle Board the wood "particles are about the size of saw dust,
the larger "chips" or "flakes" stuff is realy OSB "Oriented Strand Board". 
  ...lew...


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## Bernd (Apr 22, 2008)

Lew Hartswick  said:
			
		

> Being another "nit picker",  In Particle Board the wood "particles are about the size of saw dust,
> the larger "chips" or "flakes" stuff is realy OSB "Oriented Strand Board".
> ...lew...



Ah, got me Lew. :big:

Bernd


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## alan2525 (Apr 22, 2008)

I hate nit pickers! 

Isn't particle board an upmarket name for chip-board? Chips about the size of grains of rice crispies all glued together with ghastly glue thats swimming in formaldehyde?

 :big:


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## Mcgyver (Apr 22, 2008)

I always thought particle board was the crap that looked like it was made from sawdust, chip board the crap that looked like it was made from what a hatchet chip off and mdf was crap that was made out of darker brown fine particle mystery crap, about as crappy as the other crap but 3x's as heavy.

I 'pine' for the days when everything in a piece of wood came from the same tree


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## alan2525 (Apr 22, 2008)

Damn tho - all this talk of MDF on a Model Engine Machinist Forum! I once almost got barred from a modelling usergroup for even mentioning it! 

Is MDF made from the same stuff as those fibre board pin boards - only just pressed more to make it a little more dense?

I work in a school and some of the GCSE D&T toolbox projects manage to combine an example of each board too - a different bit of crap on each side!

 :


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## Rog02 (Apr 22, 2008)

OK!

All this talk of MDF, Fiber Board and other wood composite materials made me curious enough to go look for an explanation.

http://www.pbmdf.com/CPA30/files/ccLibraryFiles/Filename/000000000878/CompositePanelsStartToFinish.pdf

This discussion is common around fab shops that do sheet metal, as MDF has replaced plywood as material for working bucks.

Yep, I'm a nitpicker too!


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## Loose nut (Apr 22, 2008)

Mdf is basically sawdust and glue Mdo is plywood and is the preferred type but can be harder to find.


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## Bernd (Apr 23, 2008)

OK, I'm guilty for being the "nit-wit" that kept this going. :big: :big: :big:

Bernd

P.S. Won't it be nice if we could take aluminum chips and press them into a kind of particle board. (OK, I'm running and ducking now) ;D


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## Lew Hartswick (Apr 23, 2008)

Bernd  said:
			
		

> Bernd
> 
> P.S. Won't it be nice if we could take aluminum chips and press them into a kind of particle board. (OK, I'm running and ducking now) ;D


Now there is an idea. I wonder if it was done in a reducing atmosphere at a temp near melting it would
result in something like the porus stuff in an "Oilite" bearing. ????
{ no charge for the idea} 
  ...lew...


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## Loose nut (Apr 23, 2008)

Isn't there a version of Devcon that is for aluminum, thats basically the same thing, form it into a mold with some pressure and you might have a rough part. It would save you from having to have a foundry and you could avoid excess machining just like a casting, just a little finish machining and your done. 

You might have something here but how much do you want to bet that someone has already though of it and is making parts already.


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