# Homemade Tools >  [Woodturning] Face plate

## Christophe Mineau

Hi,
I recently got the opportunity to purchase for a good price a batch of M33x3.5 nuts, which happen to be the thread of most of the European lathe spindles.
There is a lot of possibilities with these nuts, here are a couple of examples :

First example is a face plate.

The nut is welded to a steel plate, then mounted on the metal lathe and the plate is then trued up.
The holes are drilled afterwards. 


Before welding, I had trued the face of the nut on the lathe (I have an M33 spindle that can be mounted on my metal lathe chuck)

And here we go:








Here, as I haven't got any 33mm spanner to unlock the nut after the turning (and dit not make one yet), I use this rubber band tool which appears to be very powerful.




I have often some difficulties to source plates of metal. Here is an idea ... (this is not what I used for the above example).

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Jon (Mar 29, 2016),

kbalch (Mar 29, 2016),

Paul Jones (Mar 29, 2016),

PJs (Mar 29, 2016)

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## Paul Jones

Christophe,
I like your metal and parts sourcing ideas. When I was kid, my mom would give me her old pots, pans and even clothes irons just for cutting up the metal to make tool parts. I think today the source would be garage sales. BTW - That is a nice looking wood lathe. Thanks for sharing, 
Paul

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Christophe Mineau (Mar 29, 2016)

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## DIYer

Thanks Christophe Mineau! We've added your Lathe Face Plate to our Wood Lathes category,
as well as to your builder page: Christophe Mineau's Homemade Tools. Your receipt:















Lathe Face Plate
 by Christophe Mineau

tags:
lathe

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## thuzmund

That's a great idea to get metal! I wonder if cast iron would work for a faceplate, or if it would be too soft. It comes pretty thick anyway. I imagine that aluminum would also be common in a lot of cookware, which is weaker than steel so I imagine best to go a little thicker with that material. 

You got me thinking! Really what a great idea to get thicker metal, which can be expensive. I did the same thing, but used 2" or 3" steel washers. I had to keep them small because any bigger than that and it gets very expensive very fast. I suppose because the area of a circle increases much faster than the diameter so there's a lot of difference in amount of steel in 3" vs" 6" washers. That's why it usually pays to buy a large pizza, not a small or medium!  :Smile:  

Bigger than 3", I would have to order stock from a supplier. But maybe not any more, thanks for the tip.

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