The faceplate pattern is turned on the lathe from a piece of plywood. Gingery says to attach the pattern to the lathe with a "threaded shaft adaptor." Too bad I've never heard of a threaded shaft adaptor... I have however read a lot of books and have seen pictures of 4-jaw chucks. So I designed a quick and cheap chuck, made a pattern, cast it and finished it off a little. The jaw screws are made from threaded rod since I didn't feel like buying some bolts.
At this point I'm using the regular metal cutting bits to machine the plywood disk. I glued a hub on both sides of the disk so my 4-jaw chuck could grip it on both ends letting me machine both sides. The hub on the front is later removed.
Here is the cast faceplate with the gate and sprue still attached. The pattern is next to it. The center hole was actually drilled after casting. I covered the center hole in the pattern with tape which caused a slight depression on the casting. This depression automatically centered the bit in the drill press. It worked well for me but If you mess up you have to cast a new faceplate.