Had some spare time so I thought I'd try to make a couple of all wood face plates for lathe turning. Here is a photo of a couple. I have more parts that need to glued together.
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The one on the left has a 5/8" smooth bore to fit the Shopsmith spindle; the one on the right is threaded 1" x 8 TPI to fit a lathe spindle or mount on the PennState Industries adapter shown on the right.
The Shopsmith version has a 3/8" x 16 TPI x 1/2" long set screw to fix it to the spindle. I used some scrap 1 1/2" soft wood lumber for the base of the face plate and cherry for the face itself. After drilling the 5/8" hole (used the Shopsmith bradpoint bit), I used thin CA adhesive to add strength, and then added more CA after tapping the threads. The CA tightened the fit on the Shopsmith spindle that had been a bit loose after drilling. The threaded holes appear quite strong after applying the CA twice and running the tap through the holes again after the CA dried.
The holes that were to be threaded were drilled into face or side grain of the wood, not end grain. I ran a tap into a hole in the end grain of softwood, but it acted more like a reamer than a tap, so I chose to use face grain, which worked well.
There are a number of options for mounting a blank to the wooden faceplates: double sided tape; hot melt glue, thick CA on the blank and accelerator on the faceplate; or, screws as in a traditional face plate.
Wooden Face Plates
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Wooden Face Plates
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Art in Western Pennsylvania
I should have added that these are not one-use faceplates. To the contrary, after being used you can part off the finished item and then resurface/flaten the face of the faceplate and reuse it. After you resurface the face to nothing, you can glue on another face. All of this presupposes that the bores will hold up. It's likely that using all hardwood would provide longer life.
Art in Western Pennsylvania
