Faceplate size for 4.5" Boxford AUD

Could anyone familiar with the older 4.5" Boxford lathe help me with choosing which size of faceplate I should purchase. They appear to come in 7.5" or 9" from what I have seen.

With mine being an early AUD 9" would be the max capacity of the lathe and I am unsure if a 9" faceplate would fit or if it would be too large. To save possibly buying something that would be useless to me I'm hoping somebody knows the answer.

Thanks,

Simon.

If you have a choice and it fits, go for the 9", if you ever get something that is marginal for a 7" , you will be kicking yourself. Measure the rad between the spindle centre and the nearest part of the bed, it should be over 4.5" The Smart & Brown model A takes 9" faceplates and the first part of the bed that anything sticking out 1/2" would hit is at the back.

Edited By old mart on 01/04/2023 19:17:19

Would the 9" be for the larger ME10 Boxford?

According to the Lathes.co.uk website, Boxford centre-height is actually 4 5/8", so the 9" faceplate should fit. My 5" Boxford was supplied from the factory with a 7.5" faceplate, I don't remember a 9" size being offered. I soon added a 9" faceplate though, machined from a casting that Reeves used to supply. I think that mounting this casting was about the only time the original was used. However, the greater utility of the larger faceplate is due to its considerably greater number of slots, 12 IIRC The original Boxford one had only six and they never seem to line up with what I want to do.

I have a 4.5" mk2 AUD and I have, as standard, a 7.5" faceplate. I did however recently purchase a 9" faceplate which was maybe standard or an optional extra with the later lathes? (It is painted green and I'm almost certain it's never been used). You can swing it on a 4.5" lathe no problem, as mentioned above the centre height is actually a little more than 4.5". The reason I wanted it was more because of the 8 mounting slots rather than the 6 in the 7.5" version.

Think, here, if the ways were reeeally wide apart (which obviously they are not) you could fit a reeeeally large faceplate. If it is even exactly 4.5” to centre height, a 9.0” faceplate would clear unless the ways were very close together.

Thank you Craig, this is exactly what I was hoping to hear from someone. I suspected the 9" might fit and now I know for sure that it does I shall get myself the 9" one.

I was hoping the larger one would fit as it offers much more flexibility due to the extra area and slots.

Thank you to everyone for your replies.

Simon

Hi Simon, just to reassure you that a 9" faceplate should fit your your Boxford, but is it important it is not be any bigger, as there is very little clearance over the front parts of the saddle. I've used my disc that I trued up for tramming my Chester mill, which has a diameter of 8.9609375", which is just a shade over being 0.039" under 9" and In the photo below, the piece of 0.035" thick aluminium between my disc and the front side of the saddle, just fits in snugly, which will give a clearance of around 16 thou on a 9" diameter faceplate on my lathe, so I wouldn't want to much swarf dropping in there while turning.

Regards Nick.