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CEILING PLATES - BASES FOR LIGHTING

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Here is a wood turning job done mainly on the lathe.

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The client had some heavy antique lighting that he could not fix easily to the ceilings.
He decided to fix a wooden plate to the ceiling, and then fix the lighting to the plate.
↓ Here is the piece I was given to copy. It is made from MDF.
The recess will hold the wiring connectors. I wonder if that will meet building regs ?
Base diameter = 130mm
Thickness = 25mm
Recess diameter = 48mm
Recess depth = 17mm

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↓ I obtained a 2.4m x 1.2m x 25mm thick MDF sheet from B&Q.
I used a power saw and roughly cut out 20 squares 170mm x 170mm.

 

↓ I marked the centre on each square and drilled an 8mm hole.

 

↓ I sanded off the corners using my home made sander.
The table and wheel is off a broken Clark Sanding machine.
The power unit is the old unused bumpy and noisy single phase motor off the Warco lathe.

 

↓ Much drilling and sanding later.
Here are the 20 squares, each with a hole and with the corners knocked off.

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↓ The squares fouled the crossslide, so I removed the top of the crossslide and covered the innards of the carriage with a cloth held in place with elastic bands.
I had to knock the corners off each square, otherwise the squares hit the carriage.

 

↓ I made a clamp to secure the squares to the faceplate.

 

↓ I inserted the square between the clamp and faceplate.

 

↓ I used an 8mm drill to line up the square on the faceplate, then I tightened the clamp with a spanner.

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↓ I needed a 48mm Forstner bit to machine the recess.
I decided to buy the cheap 27 Pound Forstner bit set from Screwfix.
The set comes with 16 bits ranging from 6mm to 54mm.
The bits are built to a price but are ok for occasional home use.

 

↓ I used a 48mm Forstner bit to machine the recesses.
I had to 'fix' the cutting edges on this one before I could use it. At well under 2 pounds a bit I was not complaining.

 

↓ I mounted the Forstner bit in a chuck in the tailstock.

 

↓ The advantage of rotating the work on the faceplate is that I can clear the debris from the Forstner bit without having to keep stopping the lathe.
The MDF was very fibrous inside and I had to clear the Forstner bit about 8 times when drilling each recess.
I had 20 squares to do, and pausing to clear swarf about 8 times on each square meant upwards of 160 stops and starts.
You can see the work still spinning as I am clearing out the debris here. Nice and quick and safe (I kept my finger a lot further back than that).

 

↓ After I finished cutting each recess, I thoroughly cleaned the bit with wire wool to remove any gluey wood residue.
I left the bit to cool in water. Meanwhile I removed the square I had just machined and mounted a new square ready for machining.
The cleaning and cooling process kept the cheap Forstner bit in tip top condition during the proceedings.

 

↓ Here is one square with the recess done.
The bottom of the recess is 'fluffy rough' because this sheet of MDF is very fibrous.

 

↓ A lot of time and effort later.
Here are the 20 squares, each with a hole, with the corners knocked off, and each with a 48mm x 17mm recess.

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↓ The next operation was to turn the squares into circles.
I made an arbor to hold the squares in the lathe chuck.

 

The assembly is clamped and held by the M8 nut.

 

The 48mm steel disc is a good snug fit in the recess in the MDF.

 

The M8 nut and steel disc combine to press the MDF tightly against the outside of the chuck jaws.

 

The arbor holds the square super rigid in the chuck. I'm pleased about this.

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↓ I reground a parting tool blade on the Clarkson.
The cutting edge is about 25mm long and ground at 45 degrees.
The tool is razor sharp.

 

 

↓ I turned down the twenty squares and made them circular.
It took about 10 minutes to turn down each of the 20 squares. Phew, long job.

 

 

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↓ The client wanted a groove on one periphery.
I used a wheel bearing shell to hold the round bases square, and further away from the chuck.
In hindsight I should used this set up earlier on, when turning the squares into circles. It is a much better set up.

 

 

↓ I put a rough radius on a short piece of tool steel by hand grinding it on the Clarkson.
I wish I had a radius turning attachment, it would have done a better job.
I used the topslide to feed in the form tool to create the groove.

 

 

↓ After doing about 5 bases I got the hang of it and the grooves started to turn out all the same.
It only took about 4 minutes to do each of the twenty grooves.

 

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↓ At long last I finished all twenty bases.

 

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The Axminster dust extractor was fantastic, well worth the money.
I wore a face mask during the whole proceedings and the new extractor kept the dust down to an absolute minimum.

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