Lost the battle, but the war is not over!

[Joe Vincent 63]

Mounted my first 23" maple bowl to a new Oneway 6" face plate. Filled all holes with 3" double torque, square drive screws from Woodcraft. Mounted the faceplate on the end of the lathe, and turned the outside, and foot. Remounted the bowl on the foot, and tried to remove the face plate. Screws wouldn't come out, just snap off (the few I tried). Tried to clear the wood from around the face plate, ended up catching on one of the easy wood tools, and launching the bowl across the room (about 120#, running about 450 rpms).

Tomorrow, I remount on the face plate, turn a new foot, reduce the diameter to a size where I can use the tailstock on my PM3520, carve out the faceplate, then proceed with business!

Joe

[David Reed]

A little rotational momentum there to disperse. I suspect it really made the rounds in the shop before giving it up. To preserve the diameter, could you remove, or snap off the remaining screws then using a combination of drills, old chisels and vice grips to get the remnants out? I suspect that drilling alongside the screw with a 1/4 inch drill would loosen the screw considerably. Shame to loose too much material in a nice large blank like this.

[Hayes Rutherford]

Joe, 3" screws seem too long. Hope you have a good go of it tomorrow.

[Joe Vincent 63]

I agree on the screw size. Issue I had was almost 2" of pith I had to screw through. With the size of the blank, most of the 6" faceplate was over the pith area. I am sure tomorrow will be better. Funny thing is, you see these videos of stuart batty or Mike M, and they have strands of wood flying of the large blanks nonstop. My experience has been much more abrupt cutting until the blank gets close to round, then gouges seem to cut ok. I know gouges are very sharp as well.

Joe

[Gary Max]

My small thought's-----not to be mean----buy better quaity screws.
If your wood is thick enough three inch long screws work better than 2 inch.
The more holding power the safer.

[Joe Vincent 63]

I agree Gary, I need to look at the screws again. However, these were the best I could buy from woodcraft (weren't cheap either). What brand do you recommend for 3" in size? Faceplate will take up to #10. I also think the blank moved a little on the faceplate in looking at it last night. That probably created stress on the screws as well.

Once I get through this one, I have another of the same size to do, and it has the same pitch issue (log was split in half).

Joe

[Bill Bolen]

I keep a used up bar of soap in the bowl holding my mounting screws. Twist the screw in the soap to coat the threads and you won't get another broken screw. I use sheet metal screws as they have a good deep thread and seem to resist breaking.

[Joe Vincent 63]

Thanks, Bill, great idea! Does anyone pre drill holes for faceplate screws? I just went straight in with them, but thought I'd ask ...

Joe

[Ted Calver]

I pre drill about half way and use appropriate sized self-drilling hex head stainless screws from Lowe's and have had no snap off problems. Impact driver in and out with screws lubed with toilet ring wax.

[Dave Ogren]

I always pre-drill, using a 7/16" wood bit, just barely getting a counter bore to accommodate the wood that comes up. I am using a 1/2" thick face plate with 1/4" X 1" sheet metal screws. Never had any kind of problem. I think in an old post Leo Van Der Lou had mentioned something about 3/16" of engagement was adequate, but am not positive.
Good Luck,

Dave

[Bernie Weishapl]

I use the soap and hex head sheet metal screws. Haven't twisted one off since.

[Gary Conklin]

+1 to What Bernie said, less the soap.

[Michael Mills]

Like many of the others I use hex head sheet metal screws.
One thing I would do is redrill your faceplate for at least #12, for large items I would go to #14 screws.
The #10 you mentioned is pretty small diameter for a large item.
One brand that I have seen mentioned quite a few times is Tapcon. They make a hardened concrete screw with a hex head and the steel quality is suppose to be very high. I don't have them so I can't give a personal recommedation.

[terry mccammon]

Agree with lubrication of fastener as stated above. Remember that resistance to sideways torque loading is a function of the thickness of the fastener, all other items being equal. I had the exact same circumstance as yourself having mounted a rather heavy and green piece of cherry, turned the bottom and foot and proceeded to snap every single screw in attempting to get them off. I went out and got a chinese made bench chisel and proceeded to dig them out. The threads were bound to the wood such that I had to pry the screw out of the wood to get each piece out.

Now I use stainless steel torx drive #12 or #14 depending on the duty lubricating with a rub across a piece of ivory soap that sits on my bench. Problem solved. I drill a starter hole as well.

[Primvs Aebvtivs]

For Joe, I'm not sure, but are the screw you used "dry wall" screws? (ducks for cover in case...) I don't use anything much over #10 myself, but that's just me - plenty of depth in a pre-drilled hole, no lube, and not had a problem yet - touch wood! Lube and big screws seems to b ethe way to go on big stuff, or possibly more smaller screws. I rarely use anything longer than 1 1/2" personally. hope that helps, and you get all the bits out!