Although new to woodturning I have done flat / box woodworking for many years and I know that when you drive a screw into a piece of wood the wood will mushroom up around the hole. Some woodturning DVDs and videos advise adding a countersink to the front (wood) face of a faceplate to provide a clearance space for this mushroom affect.
Is this advisable?
If so would the countersinks change the balance of the faceplate?
Thanks in Advance
I typically drill a small pilot hole, a little smaller than the root diameter of the screw into my blank (but I almost exclusively work with kiln-dried or air-dried wood; in New Mexico, green wood air dries really fast). This is not to prevent mushrooming--but because it's easier for the screw to tap a thread in the wood, and the screw follows the pilot drill hole better. (My skills with a hand-held cordless drill/driver are less than optimal). When I drive the screw into the blank, I do the "wheel nut" method. For a 4-hole faceplate, 12 o'clock, 6 o'clock, 3 o'clock, 9 o'clock.
Unless you are particularly good with hand tools, or have access to a machine shop, I would not suggest countersinking the faceplate side of the faceplate (but that's just my hand-eye coordination speaking). I wouldn't worry about the balance of the faceplate--you'd be removing the same amount of material from each hole, at an equal (and radially symmetrical) distance from the axis.
A safety notice: I have never broken a screw in a faceplate, but I have had a blank rip out of the screws. This was an older piece of wood that was pre-turned (by someone else). I rescrewed into different, clean locations on the wood, but it turns out with diagnosis that the wood was a bit spalty. So, in addition to the usual cautions about using good screws and having a flat surface to mate into: Make sure you have sound wood, and don't overdrive the screw (where your screw turns into an inexpensive routing bit).