Russ Fairfield
>There is no way to hold a piece of wood in a lathe that is more solid and free from vibration than a solid faceplate and a lot of screws. I like the Oneway 6" faceplate because it is solid and will not flex under a heavy load.

For turning a lot of bowls, my favorite faceplate is one that that was popular in North Florida when I lived there several years ago. A local machine shop made an adapter that would mate a 2" pipe flamge to my lathe spindle. After the initial cost of the adapter, pipe flanges are cheap. I drill a few extra holes in them, attach them to the bowl blanks with lag bolts, and they stay there for rough turning, drying, and finishing. The lag bolts will need tightening after drying, and sometimes a shim may be needed between the bowl and flange if it has gotten too far out during drying. I believe that the flanges improve the recovery ratio because it keeps the bowl bottoms intact during drying. Although some folks thought it necessary to machine the face of the flange, the rough surface is sufficiently true to the pipe threads that there are no problems. This is a heavier version of the Read replaceable faceplate system that Craft Supplies used to sell.

For tuning the bottoms of plates and platters, I use a variation of the face plate that is not glued to the wood. The "plate" is a double thickness disc of 3/4" MDF that has about 200 screws driven through from the back side and then permanently attached to a 6" steel faceplate. The wood is held against the tips of the screws with the tail center while the bottom (outside) of the bowl or platter is finished. It will not move!!! A chucking recess is turned in the bottom of the plate so that I can turn the top (inside) while holding the piece in a chuck.