Up until now I haven't had the need to use lathe dogs too much for centered turning work, but now I do. I bought some bent ear dogs which I (naively) assumed engaged the slots of a face plate. I see 2 issues with this:
- the larger dogs will not fit in the 1/2" wide slot, the material is too thick. I could grind some of the bent ear material away but I suspect that's not proper
- spacing wise, the position of the faceplate to MT center to work/dog does not look right to my eye. The end of the work is outboard quite a bit vs. compact to the faceplate. My lathe uses an MT5/MT3 socket & then MT3 dead center in that. I noticed the MT3 centers I gave are slightly different length, but even the shorter one looks to extend out a bit.
I googled & found some images like attached. I now think what I'm looking for is a specific 'dog plate' if that's what they are called. But I don't see such a beast for D1-4, or at least thus far. I could probably make one by repurposing a lathe chuck adapter if push comes to shove with slots or provisions for pins. Any comments welcome, maybe I'm barking up the wrong tree.
ps - I've also see where people chuck some stock, turn a 60-deg point in-situ to act as a center, mount the work & bent ear dog & let that rest on the chuck jaws. I think this might actually be faster option if I only do this operation rarely. Of course its not hardened or anything. Is this considered proper setup? I'm more-so thinking about side load on the chuck jaw here.
- the larger dogs will not fit in the 1/2" wide slot, the material is too thick. I could grind some of the bent ear material away but I suspect that's not proper
- spacing wise, the position of the faceplate to MT center to work/dog does not look right to my eye. The end of the work is outboard quite a bit vs. compact to the faceplate. My lathe uses an MT5/MT3 socket & then MT3 dead center in that. I noticed the MT3 centers I gave are slightly different length, but even the shorter one looks to extend out a bit.
I googled & found some images like attached. I now think what I'm looking for is a specific 'dog plate' if that's what they are called. But I don't see such a beast for D1-4, or at least thus far. I could probably make one by repurposing a lathe chuck adapter if push comes to shove with slots or provisions for pins. Any comments welcome, maybe I'm barking up the wrong tree.
ps - I've also see where people chuck some stock, turn a 60-deg point in-situ to act as a center, mount the work & bent ear dog & let that rest on the chuck jaws. I think this might actually be faster option if I only do this operation rarely. Of course its not hardened or anything. Is this considered proper setup? I'm more-so thinking about side load on the chuck jaw here.