aluminum face plate

I have used a 6" and a 3"

steve antonucci

>6" came with my Nova, and it's way too big 99% of the time.

The 3" I bought from Don Pencil (in person) at one of the shows. It's great, and I'd highly recommend his products.

Steve

Re: aluminum face plate *LINK*

MikeinCapeMay

>I have several 2 1/2" and 3 1/2" from Craft supplies and have used them without problems. This includes use of the 3 1/2" on items over 12".


CS aluminum faceplates

Re: aluminum face plate

Lyn J. Mangiameli

>I've been using several of the Don Pencil aluminum faceplates in sizes from roughly 2 inches to 4 inches (the latter fitting a 1.5 with a Nova chuck insert). All have worked very well and have been a good alternative to what had been my favorite 3 inch steel Oneways.

For the 3.5 and 4 inch size, I drill out the screw holes to take a #12 Robertson head screw (Craft Supplies sells these, which are my favorite). The aluminum drills easily, so you can tailor the screw size to anything you like.

If you use a lathe with a 1.25 x8 spindle on a lathe with a locking groove (like the DVR, the most recent Deltas and some others) you might want to contact Don directly to see if you can obtain a new version of his faceplate that includes spindle locking screws and a thicker spindle collar. I've used a prototype version of these for a couple of months and I think they are excellent.

The downside of aluminum faceplates is that you can strip or crossthread the internal threading more easily than with a steel faceplate, but this is hardly even a problem with the type of workpieces appropriate to a faceplate in the 2-4 inch range (but is one reason I wouldn't use a 6 inch aluminum plate unless it had a steel thread insert). The other problem is that the aluminum can get cut up a bit more easily from the screw heads of mis-aligned screws (something the is easy to repair with just a lick or two of a file).

The upside of the small aluminum faceplates is the they are plenty rigid, are often nicely color anodized which helps with color coding as well as virtually eliminating any chance of corrosion, and that anodized or not, the aluminum faceplates just don't rust in response to wet an acidic green woods.

So any of the smaller size aluminum faceplates should do you well. The Don Pencil are my favorite, but the BestWoodTool and Mink are also very good aluminum faceplates. The only aluminum faceplate I don't recommend it the 6 inch Teknatool which I find inadequate for the size workpiece that woud typically be mounted (though it can work fine for mounting vacuum and sanding coverplates, or for large flate pieces like large platters or round tabletops). But do also compare to the Oneway 3 inch solid steel faceplates which provide an alternative.