Gunsmithing Grizzly Gunsmith D1-5 Back Plate
- Thread starter dakor
- Start date
I've got several of these - the price was right and I didn't have to spend an afternoon chasing all the bits and stock to make one from.
I use a pair of them on one lathe I have - one on the outboard end of the spindle, and another on the inboard end, unless I have the Set-Tru on it.
Outboard end - slips over the spindle where the collet used closer used to reside.
Just bolted to an adaptor for the spindle, fit and keyed. It MAY come off if I use the lathe without a barrel in it, no axial retention. Makes it easy to remove though.
Set tru on inboard end
Have one for the big Grizzly gunsmith lathe also, just don't have a picture handy. It's like the one you posted, the gunsmith lathes already have a spider on the outboard end, just that the brass tipped screws are too long with a barrel in them, they don't clear the lathe. I understand this has been fixed on later lathes, shorter screws are supplied.
I use a pair of them on one lathe I have - one on the outboard end of the spindle, and another on the inboard end, unless I have the Set-Tru on it.
Outboard end - slips over the spindle where the collet used closer used to reside.
Just bolted to an adaptor for the spindle, fit and keyed. It MAY come off if I use the lathe without a barrel in it, no axial retention. Makes it easy to remove though.
Set tru on inboard end
Have one for the big Grizzly gunsmith lathe also, just don't have a picture handy. It's like the one you posted, the gunsmith lathes already have a spider on the outboard end, just that the brass tipped screws are too long with a barrel in them, they don't clear the lathe. I understand this has been fixed on later lathes, shorter screws are supplied.
Grizzly sells a bald eagle spider for cheap. Attach it to your face plate and you are in business. I love mine
Grizzly.com
Grizzly.com
Sure- but if you already have a faceplate you just drill and tap four holes. I typically run this with the rear spider for barrels under 20".
The problem with using the Bald Eagle spider on a plain D1-4 back plate is no matter how you orient the spider, one of the four holes interfere with one of the back plate pins. This is the reason I made my own with 5 mounting holes. The 6" hunk of 6061 I used for mine came from eBay...ran about $20.
Why not just use the cam lock pins on the "spider" and do away with the backing plate all together. That would give a few more inches as well
I didn't have that problem- I threw the backplate in the mill vise, made sure the pins weren't at 12, 3, 6 or 9 and hit my bolt hole pattern on my DRO and it works great.
On my D1-4 I used the backing plate for a Pratt Burnerd chuck. Same for my D1-5. Turned it down and drilled and tapped it. That shortened up the head stock even further.
That seems like a good idea that warrant further investigation.
Does anyone know where you buy cam lock pins?
reference grizzly backplate spider
Dave, I just received a backplate spider from grizzly, D1-5 and the screw holes do not match the outboard end screw holes 12,6 & 3,9 o'clock. Is this important? I always try to mate my 4-jaw chuck with the screw holes on the outboard end.
Dave, I just received a backplate spider from grizzly, D1-5 and the screw holes do not match the outboard end screw holes 12,6 & 3,9 o'clock. Is this important? I always try to mate my 4-jaw chuck with the screw holes on the outboard end.
It's not important. At one time I probably thought it was. You're working with the screws directly in front of you. Run out has nothing to do with screw orientation.
If you have a Grizzly lathe, you can loosen the set screws securing the outboard spider and rotate it to the orientation you prefer. But it doesn't matter in the grand scheme of things.
On another note, I index all my chucks so they go on the spindle in the same spot every time since the cam pins are adjusted accordingly.
On my spiders I drilled and and threaded the adjusting screws oversize to 1/2-20.
Yup! I just took a D1-4 adapter plate, turned down the OD to match the spindle diameter and drilled/tapped it every 90 degrees. I got the backplate from Blue Ball machine for $25.00 used. One of the holes interfered with the cam pin, just trimmed the pin a smidge and it works fine.
The really nice thing is it netted me about 2" of advantage over any other setup.
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Dave Kiff at PT&G is making a D-1 4 Cat head and hopefully will be selling them to Shiraz at Grizzly shortly. Shiraz is already selling D1-5 and D1-6 Catheads for less than you can make one yourself.
Nat Lambeth
Nat Lambeth
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