Mounting a face plate on a spindle in the chuck is, for the beginner,
a questionable procedure. The whole idea of turning between centres is
accuracy. Lathe chucks tend to have less than optimal accuracy when
requiring tight tolerances. Also, by moving the "centre" or point as
you referred to it, farther from the bearings in the head, you tend to
decrease rigidity in your setup. By using a spindle mounted faceplate
and a soft point MT5 (if that is what your spindle is) centre to do
you "between centres turning" you will have a setup on which you will
be able to produce the most accurate work your lathe is capable of
producing.
Buy the largest faceplate your lathe can swing, and a small dog drive
with a couple of drive dogs.

Are you sure your spindle bore has a MT5 taper?

"xray" wrote in message
...
|
| So I recently got myself a used matal lathe. It came with a pretty
good
| selection of accessories, but I am looking to fill what I don't have
| that I may need.
|
| First, I have almost no experience, so I have been studying. I have
| several books including MH and "Machine Shop Practice." To firm this
| stuff in my brain, I ordered the 5-DVD set from
| http://technicalvideorental.com/rental_12.html
|
| "Lathe Learnin'" made by Precision Measurement in San Antonio. Good
| Stuff. I learned a lot that willl save me much wasted time.
|
| In two sections near the end, he uses a faceplate that, rather than
| being on the lathe spindle has its own spindle that is then clamped
in
| the lathe chuck. At one point the spindle has a point as it is used
to
| drive a dog for taper turning. Later, what appears to be the same
| faceplate, is used to set up a piece clamped off of the lathe for
| drilling and boring. I couldn't tell, but it seems that the center
point
| would be in the way for this operation. No mention was made either
time
| about the face plate and spindle itself.
|
| So -- this seems useful -- the question: Are others doing this? Can
I
| easily buy a faceplate/spindle that I can clamp in my chuck.
| With/without a center point? If so what do I look for and where to
find
| it.
|
| ----
|
| Right now I've got nothing I can use on the headstock end for
turning
| between centers. The above questions offer one option that may be
the
| most flexible for my needs. I could order a big MT-5 center to fit
my
| spindle but the video made me think.
|
| I have no dogs. Suppose I may encounter a need to turn something
between
| .5 inch and 2.5 inch. How many steps of dog capacity do I need? Is
there
| a rule of thumb? Is there a more flexible way of providing the drive
| force?
|
| Thanks in advance.
|