Blank Face plates?

[Mike Burdick]

Do any of you know if blank face plates are made, and if so, where can they be purchased?

Thanks in advance....Mike

[Al Messer]

Travers Tools and J & L Industrial Supply comes to mind.

[Al Messer]

A thousand pardons--these are chuck back plates.

[Mac1]

Mike
This company sells quality castings for faceplates and other stuff.
http://www.statecollegecentral.com/metallathe/

[Forrest Addy]

Make your own. Cast iron faceplates tend to be delicate. No beef to them. I hate them.

Get a hunk of 2" to 3" thick cteel plate from a steel outfit (maybe they'll have a circle remnent about the right size or a bar stock drop from the cut-off saw). Face one side and either bolt a chuck back plate to it or machine a spindle detail to suit your lathe.

Mount it on the spindle. Turn the OD and face the working side. Leave it full thickness; dont relieve the back side.

Regard the faceplate as consumable tooling. Feel free to drill and tap holes in it where ever necessary. No T slots. When the faceplate looks like swiss cheese throw it in the foundry scrap and start using the spare.

You did make two, didn't you?

[Mike Burdick]

Mac1,

Thanks for the link. I was thinking of that site but couldn't remember the address.

Forrest,

Good idea......think I'll go with your suggestions.

Thanks to both,

Mike

[Rich Carlstedt]

Right On Forrest !

I have seen guys wrestle for hours trying to fit a job on the face plate, when they could have just drilled the fixture mounting holes and be done with it..
I guess they were looking for a plate where the manufacturer already put in some holes on a 5.906 B/C 5 hole pattern !!!!

Start out by marking the existing FP hole pattern on your fixture and see if it will still allow you to hold the part....don't make the fixture then try to see if it fits the FP, otherwise its has to be new holes !!

I have to disagree with you Forrest on when to toss them...A old machinist told me that when you can play 2 rounds of golf and not hit the same hole twice, its about time !

[John Stevenson]

A good source for disposable faceplates is a laser cutting shop.
These people get literally hundreds of disks cut out of plate where they need a hole.
Usually there will be a start point just inside where they have pierced but you can either ingore this or weld it up and machine off.
It pays to get a spare backplate and machine a register on it and then make the same register on the 'faceplate'. This way you can swop the plates around between jobs.

I am very fortunate in having a laser cutter for a customer and being well in with them as I helped them from their early staring days.
I have carte blanch to raid the scrap bins when I go down without having to ask permission.
I probably have about 6 or 7 faceplates that are special for just one job.
I have on that is faced with 1" thick ply, ideal for a quick job where its possible to fasten the part on with wood screws.

If you do need to have slots on a faceplate instead of doing the standard 8 equal slots mill 7 slots. 4 equal slots at 90 degrees and three equal slots at 120 degrees with one being common to both the 3 and 4 range.
This way you get to hold 2,3,4,6,8,9 and 12 holed items .

Another thing to look out for at the profilers are small disks about 1" up to 2" in diameter. Get a few of these out of decent thickness like 3/8" up to 5/8" and just drill a hole thru the centre.
These make idea mounting washers for the mill table or vises. Far better than those silly sheet metal washers sold today, at least these don't get dished.

John S.

[pgmrdan]

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[This message has been edited by pgmrdan (edited 03-08-2004).]

[Thrud]

John
You sneaky bugger - don't tell all the british secrets of machining faceplates with 7 slots! Jesus man, you will get us in **** with King Dumbo!