Stuck Faceplate?

I was trying to turn my first bowl tonight on the lathe, and ended up getting the faceplate stuck. I’ve tried just muscling it off, and tapping it with a mallet, but haven’t been able to get it loose. Any tips for loosening it? Or is there any grease or something available in the shop?

Resolved! I was able to get my bowl off and get a scrap piece of wood screwed into the faceplate, then gave it a couple whacks with the mallet until it came loose.

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I’m glad you were able to get it off. Were you making use of the red button below the control panel? If you hold that down and spin the Chuck maybe a quarter turn or so, it locks the spindle so you can actually apply force.

And if it doesn’t come off by hand, it usually doesn’t after a long or heated turning session, I put a few dedicated wrenches in the tool drawers that can help.

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Ah, I knew there must be a way to lock the spindle, but I didn’t know how - I didn’t even realize there was a button there. :sweat: Mikey held on to one end while I tried to spin the bowl.

I’ll keep that in mind for next time, and I’ll take a look in the tool drawer for the wrenches. But the faceplate I was using was completely round, so I’ll pick one with a wrench slot next time.

Another good option, and my preferred option is using the worm screw.

We have one faceplate with a worm screw set into it, and the other screws have to be locked in chuck jaws. One hole to drill, one thing to unscrew.