Lathe Face Plate Work 

Thanks, Ken

Thanks Steve, Ken

That was my goal when I was setting up the clamps, keep the bar as short as possible. My original plan was to take two passes, a roughing and a finishing. The problem was the roughing pass put the tip of the insert right in the hard, laser cut surface and the insert tip would chip every second part. I changed to a single pass and one corner of the insert lasted for about about 30 parts. It also made for a faster cycle time. Thanks, Ken

@@hmw-ms3tx I agree ,getting the cutting tool under the laser cut surface was the ticket

Thanks. That's the nature of a jobbing shop, lots of variety. I wouldn't want it any other way. Ken

Thanks Max, How is the new shop coming? A few weeks ago you left a comment saying your were bending reobar. Ken

@@hmw-ms3tx Ready to start the form work for the concrete , but the weather has come in & held me up for several days .

I hadn't thought about it until you mentioned it but you're right, there aren't many videos of face plates being used. Engaging the semicircle would have probably positioned it as accurately as using the hole (they share a common axis) but the nice thing about using the hole is that the centre presses the part against the face plate so it won't fall off while a guy is fumbling around looking for the wrench that he previously set down just out of reach. Thanks, Ken

@@hmw-ms3tx i was thinking of using the tailcentre as well as the semivircle but as the saying goes ask a dozen machinists how to do something and get 15 answers. It is alwsys the end product that matters not how you got there.

I had to look up ring spanner and shifting spanner as I had never heard those terms before. We call them box end wrenches and crescent wrenches (or sometimes all sixteenths). I try to use the proper size wrench (spanner) whenever possible. Ken

@@hmw-ms3tx Well English grammar was lost overboard on the Mayflower lol. There is a great trend in the US to use shifting spanners which is quite noticeable on youtube. Scale is used where we use ruler 6" rule 12" or a foot rule. Being a dive instructor for a long time the US use of dove would make us laugh. When an American used "dove" I would say I shot a few yesterday with my 12 gauge lol Here it is a grey bird that pops on your car lol Do you use ground blocks to fit in the table slot so work can datum off them ?

Being Canadian I'm usually pretty good at British terminology. We have a bit of a bastardized Anglo-American language with remnants of empire/commonwealth and the constant barrage from south of our border. My grandmother and mom were both from England (Bradford) so I picked up a lot from them. One of my grandma's favourites, when she was mad at you, was 'shit in your hat'. They both left England in 1946 (my grandma was a war bride) so the stuff I learned from them is probably dated. It wasn't the Mayflower for them, it was the Queen Mary. I have been wanting to make a set of blocks for the tee-slots on my mill but I haven't had time to get to that yet. Ken

Not quite, it's 20". The lathe can swing just under 21" so I bought as big a face plate as would fit. It doesn't get used a lot but is sometimes very handy. Ken

Hello John, Mostly it's just a guess. Put some on and then try it and see if the vibration goes down to an acceptable level. If not acceptable then adjust the amount and try again.

I get severe eczema on my hands from the coolant and cutting oils that I use. The gloves (and vaseline) keep it under control. Ken

Yeah, I was thinking the same. A straight cylindrical inner surface is too little of a turning job. That part belongs on the table of a drill press, centered, clamped, then bore or ream or whatever.