Aluminum spider plate

adamsgt

adamsgt

Jerry Adams
Bald Eagle has a spider plate w/four brass tipped cap screws that just needs to be attached to a back plate. The spider plate is 5 inches in diameter. I have a D1-4 back plate for my lathe that is 5 inches in diameter. Is this OK or should i use a larger back plate to shield the screws?
 
If by "to shield the screws" you mean "as a safety feature so the wife doesn't someday find me wadded up on my tailstock," then may I suggest duct tape as a nice wrap around the screws.......

If you're talking about something else entire, my apologies :)

al
 
alinwa said:
If by "to shield the screws" you mean "as a safety feature so the wife doesn't someday find me wadded up on my tailstock," then may I suggest duct tape as a nice wrap around the screws.......

If you're talking about something else entire, my apologies :)

al
Click to expand...

Yeah, I couldn't go look at those pictures somebody posted a while ago about a guy who got pulled into his lathe. At this point I don't know how far the screws might extend with the typical barrel in place. And the larger plate only shields from one side. I guess I'll have to wait till the plate gets here and see how it looks. PT&G is supposed to have a complete unit for sale for D1-4 mounts but their order desk was unaware of them.
 
OK.......... I tried a buncha' stuff and it all got in the way.

I soon hate stuff that gets in the way because it's a recipe for getting hurt.

BAD.

So I set my lathe up with a wooden "door" that I swing around when stuff is sticking out of the tailstock. The door latches with a drop hook, crude but effective, if one a' the barnapes comes careering around the corner looking over his shoulder to catch a flying flock........... he'll just bounce off the "door." On this door I hang a rag to catch the gunk I pump/blow/splatter of boring and reaming and cleaning.

Now, I'm still not happy because I "could" still get my arm or other appendage into the hole betwixt the door and get sucked in. (well, OK, the only "other appendage" that would reach would be my LEG, and I'd hafta' be doin' the serious hokey pokey but hey, I'm a Safety Geek)....So what I do is, I wrap tape around the sticking-out screwheads. Put the lathe in free-wheel and spin a couple wraps of tape over the screws so's it looks like a square wagon wheel.

Makes me feel good.

Good is good.

al
 
This spider will be fine with your back plate, or should be anyway. looks to me like the screws should stay down inside the spider. lee
 
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D1-4 spider

adamsgt said:
Yeah, I couldn't go look at those pictures somebody posted a while ago about a guy who got pulled into his lathe. At this point I don't know how far the screws might extend with the typical barrel in place. And the larger plate only shields from one side. I guess I'll have to wait till the plate gets here and see how it looks. PT&G is supposed to have a complete unit for sale for D1-4 mounts but their order desk was unaware of them.
Click to expand...

PT&G now has D1-4 Spiders 6" w/ .500" x 20 tpi screws enclosed for your safety, and they have alluminum tips.
We had two at the Shot Show. It is my understanding Grizzly will also be selling them.
Nat Lambeth
 
Well, I got the Bald Eagle spider plate and took it to my shop yesterday to see how it fit to the 5" D1-4 back plate. The spider plate had four holes drilled to use to mount to the plate. However, when I placed the spider plate on top of the back plate I could not find either four matching holes in the back plate or four clear areas to drill four holes. No matter how i rotated the spider plate I would end up with one hole impinging slightly on a hole in the back plate. I don't think I want to use just three of the holes on the spider plate as that would be an asymmetric mount. Nor do I want to drill another three holes in the spider plate and make it look like swiss cheese. Did I just get hoisted on my own petard?
 
sounds like a simple mismatch..not fun..but
call bald eagle and ask...
you sure you got d1-4 not d1 5 or d1-3..i know but it is the simple stuff that catches us...

i had the wrong backing plate for my three jaw buck clone...took a couple of phone calls

mike in co
 
I may be wrong but I think you need a D1-4 blank not a premachined one so you can custom mount the spider to it, at least that is what I figured when I was thinking about getting one the other day.
 
Aluminum Spider Plate

I picked up a 5" by 2" thick piece of aluminum recently so I could build a spider plate. Will probably start on it in the next couple of weeks. Very curious how it will turn out. Best of luck on your search sir!!
 
bigngreen said:
I may be wrong but I think you need a D1-4 blank not a premachined one so you can custom mount the spider to it, at least that is what I figured when I was thinking about getting one the other day.
Click to expand...

I believe I bought the D1-4 backing plate from CDCO a couple of years ago. The face is not blank as there is a slight boss which would have to be relieved to allow the plate to fit flush and other drilled and tapped holes. Guess I need to do a little more research on backing plates.

Went through the new Grizzly catalog and saw that the backing plate I have is, indeed, a Pre-machined one. I probably didn't understand what that meant when I ordered it. Now to get a plain one. OK, just went to the CDCO web site and saw that these backing plates are simply identified as "D1 Type Adapters" and no mention of "pre-machined". They just show a picture of the back of the plate. Well, now I know better.
 
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Bald Eagle Spider plate

adamsgt said:
Well, I got the Bald Eagle spider plate and took it to my shop yesterday to see how it fit to the 5" D1-4 back plate. The spider plate had four holes drilled to use to mount to the plate. However, when I placed the spider plate on top of the back plate I could not find either four matching holes in the back plate or four clear areas to drill four holes. No matter how i rotated the spider plate I would end up with one hole impinging slightly on a hole in the back plate. I don't think I want to use just three of the holes on the spider plate as that would be an asymmetric mount. Nor do I want to drill another three holes in the spider plate and make it look like swiss cheese. Did I just get hoisted on my own petard?
Click to expand...

I ended up getting the South Bend "thick" backplate from grizzly. http://www.grizzly.com/products/6-1-4-D1-4-Back-Plate-Thick/SB1394 . The extra thickness of the back plate will allow you to mount the Bald Eagle Spider using the four mounting holes of the Spider without interference with the three D1-4 mounting studs. They should have put more thought into the making of this Spider, guess that's why it is listed as discontinued in some places.

Update - Well I got the "thick" D1-4 back plate and spider mated up. I indicated the OD of the spider and tightened the 3/8X24 tpi cap bolts down. This was a simple process of drilling and tapping. As the photos show, I used a large bull nose center to make sure everything was in alignment to center punch through the spider mounting holes to mark for drilling the back plate. On the opposite end of the head stock spindle is my smaller spider that I made up too.
 

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