On Apr 4, 7:39*pm, "The Davenport's" wrote:
...
I will readily grant and acknowledge that the toolmakers buttons let you
adjust AFTER the hole is created, if you have good dials or a good readout
on your mill, you really shouldn't NEED do adjust the buttons

Mike

original question:

What I believe to be the face plate is (if I gave it a fair shake with a
quick inspection) not a thing of beauty, but it should serve. Is
that
for the lathe analog of clamping to a mill table? Dare I ask how to
do
precision setups on it?

You center each button, then drill and bore..

Another way is to clamp two bars to the faceplate at right angles to
each other, at a known distance from the center, and locate the work
from them with adjustable parallels.

If the hole spacing must be as accurate as you can measure, you can
make disks the diameter of the hole spacing and bore a hole in the
center to locate from.

I made a drill jig for the jaw pins for a Microcentric lathe chuck
this way. Drill and ream one hole, install a dowel pin and put one
disk on it, clamp the second disk touching the first and align to its
center hole, then drill and bore the second hole. I used a mill but
it's the same principle on a lathe faceplate.

Jim Wilkins