I have a project coming up where I need to be able to mount a face plate accurately to a work piece. So I made a center finder for my face plate. You can buy really nice ones made out of aluminum but it took me about ten minutes to make this one.
I first mounted a scrap piece of wood between centers and turned it round. I then mounted it in a jaw chuck and brought up the tailstock for support.
I measured the internal diameter of the face plate using calipers and then turned the piece so that the face plate fit snugly around the piece.
I mounted a drill chuck in the tail stock and drilled a 1/4″ hole as deep as I could into the piece. Then I parted it off.
To use the center finder, I take the 1/4″ punch from my transfer punch set and place the point on the exact center of my workpiece. I then slide the center finder over the transfer punch and slide the face plate over the center finder. The face plate is now accurately positioned over the center of the work piece and can be screwed to the work piece.
How do find the centre of a piece of wood that is round.I heard that there is a tool called a centre finder,but i have not seen one.where can i get one from
Danny, I use a center finder to find the center of a round or square piece of wood. It is basically a 90 degree angle with a 45 degree angle. You place the 90 degree angles on the circumference of the piece, draw a line on the 45 degree. Then you move the center finder to a different point on the circumference and repeat the process. Where the two lines you have drawn intersect is the center of the circle.
I have also made myself a center finder out of plywood to use on larger bowl blanks.