Updated 25-Oct-2010
Busy Bee's web site says that they will ship internationally. You have to phone them however to ascertain shipping costs. I don't know how recent this development is or how expensive it is, but I just happened to notice it this evening. Anyway, at least there is a theoretical possibility that owners of the 46-140 and Beaver 3400 lathes can get parts a little more easily.
N.B. After doing a little more searching I have learned that the Grizzly and Busy Bee faceplates are Steelex brand. These faceplates and their respective inserts will occasionally turn up on Amazon and eBay and various other online tool retailers.
- 8-inch faceplate (unthreaded)
- 4-jaw independent chuck (unthreaded)
- 7/8-14 spindle adapter (for inboard use)
- 3/4-16 left hand spindle adapter (for outboard use)
I personally do not own any of the above so I can't vouch for the quality of the items. If you have one or more of these you are invited to post a comment to this article for the benefit of those who follow.
I have since acquired a Steelex faceplate. See this post.
2 comments:
Hi John,
Thanks for the awesome blog as it has been invaluable with me learning about my new lathe. I just purchased the 8" faceplate, but have found that it is almost too big to mount smaller things due to how far out from the center the mounting slots begin. Is there any workaround for this?
The alternatives that come to mind for slots that do not sufficiently reach the center of the faceplate are:
1) Screw a plywood disk to the faceplate having slots routed in it and recesses for the bolt/screw heads that will protrude through the face and secure the workpiece.
2) Obtain a smaller diameter faceplate.
3) Drill and countersink screw holes through the rear of the too large faceplate. HOWEVER care should be taken to ensure that you don't throw the balance of the faceplate off in doing so. If you remove metal from the faceplate via drilling be sure the holes are uniformly sized and evenly distributed about the axis of rotation. A little wobble can become a big concern at high RPMs.
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