# Making a face plate



## bazzz (Sep 17, 2012)

Hello all,

I don't have a face plate so I thought I would try to make one. I have some unknown .375 steel I found in the pile. Will this be thick enough to make a face plate out of for a mini lathe? 

Thanks,

Dave


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## Dave Sohlstrom (Sep 17, 2012)

Is you lathe spindle threaded for your chucks or do the chucks bolt on. .375 is a bit thin and steel tends to ring.
You did not say what size face plate you would like to have. You can get a disk of cast iron 6" dia by 1" thick for 26.97 plus freight from McMaster-Carr. this would make a much better face plate.
Do you have a milling machine so you can cut slots in the face plate for mounting parts with.

Dave


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## bazzz (Sep 18, 2012)

Dave,
I have a 7x10 with the bolt on spindle. I do have a X2 milling maching to cut the slots with, just don't have a bit to cut T slots with. Does anyone have the faceplate LMS sells? 

http://www.littlemachineshop.com/products/product_view.php?ProductID=1199&category=1

Or would I be better off to make one using cast iron from McMaster Carr?

Thanks for your help,


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## ProdEng (Sep 18, 2012)

bazzz,

For a small lathe almost any type of metal will work and it isn't stricyly necessary to have slots, tapped holes are effective also.  On a small faceplate the slots are rarely in the correct spot so I would make a faceplate suitable for the part you want to machine and add tapped holes as you go.  When you run out of material simply make another one


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## MachineTom (Sep 18, 2012)

The small lathes tend to have very thin face plates, leaving little thickness to thread, an often nuts don't fit in. My go to face plate is a 1" x 9" AL disk mounted in the outside jaws, easy to drill, takes lots of threads, has a center hole counterbored on the back which will take a quickly made spud if needed. I have a slotted face plate as well, but the AL plate in the chuck gets more use.


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## Brian Rupnow (Sep 18, 2012)

3/8" is too thin for a faceplate.


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## Tin Falcon (Sep 18, 2012)

I have a LMS face plate. do not recall ever using it but have one. any questions about it I can pull it out and take a look. 
Tin


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## bazzz (Sep 18, 2012)

Thanks for the information. I will leave the 3/8 steel in the pile. I found some 1" aluminum  while I was cleaning up today. May try to cut that up tomorow and see what I can do with it. 

Thanks,

Dave


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