Help with threading wood barrel

[jcgolov]

Hi everyone

I am a novice at pen making, threading and wood turning.

I have tried to make my own kitless pen but my major issue is the threading which causes me a lot of frustration.

I have purchase a 7/16 set of three taps with the relevant die i.e. 7/16 too, for practice as the threads are big enough. I seem to be able to do the female thread but when it comes to the male one, no cigar, a complete mess with the male part that seem to be a tight fit for the hole but not threading in. I have used the relevant drill bit that I have and tried a 3/8 and a 25/64 instead of a U. The A-Z drill bits are in order ☺

On the other hand I have used a male and female 36 TPI hand chaser I got from Ebay and with the help of CA glue etc. (thanks to the posts from members of this community) I have been just a little bit more successful.

What am I doing wrong with this threading process?

 

[darrin1200]

What material are you threading?

Wood will be very difficult to get good threads on. The harder and more dense, the better. The CA will also help.

What may be happening, is that the the wood is compressing while you cut the male thread, then when you remove the die, the wood springs back, essentially not cutting the threads deep enough.

Conventional recomendations, for hole and tenon sizes, will most likely not work. Do a few trials, slighty increasing the diameter of the hole for the tap, and decreasing the diameter of the tenon for the die.

You may have to even run the tap and die a couple of times, coating the threads with a layer if thin CA each time. This may help to compensate for the wood compressing.

Good luck.

 

[Joey-Nieves]

Hi everyone

I am a novice at pen making, threading and wood turning.

I have tried to make my own kitless pen but my major issue is the threading which causes me a lot of frustration.

I have purchase a 7/16 set of three taps with the relevant die i.e. 7/16 too, for practice as the threads are big enough. I seem to be able to do the female thread but when it comes to the male one, no cigar, a complete mess with the male part that seem to be a tight fit for the hole but not threading in. I have used the relevant drill bit that I have and tried a 3/8 and a 25/64 instead of a U. The A-Z drill bits are in order ☺

On the other hand I have used a male and female 36 TPI hand chaser I got from Ebay and with the help of CA glue etc. (thanks to the posts from members of this community) I have been just a little bit more successful.

What am I doing wrong with this threading process?

First of all Welcome! You may also want to check the advanced pen turning forum, and the library.

I make kitless pens and I thread wood, acrylic and soft metals. the trick is that every material is different. This video from Steve4948 should help you https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4DQna36uThA

Note that he uses plugs and nuts to help strengthen the part while threading. Now there is some mechanics that apply here. 7/16 od for the body is to small because the section is 8.5mm or about .3345" when you take into account the groves of the threads you are left with less that a mm and that wont be strong enough unless your working with brass or some other metal.

The way I work around this is I use a brass water nipple, they are about 3/8"OD and 1/4"ID, cut it to about 2" thread the outside 10 x .75 x3 mm the inside to 8.5mm and make the section accordingly or use a Schmidt section. This method also gives me some support for making some segmenting on the body.

If you use a Schmidt Section or the standard dimensions for them, you need to drill the body 3-1/4" deep, for either a Fountain pen or a Rollerball.

Hope this helps
Joey

 

[BRobbins629]

Many like me, use easier to thread materials as insert for wooden barrels. Makes life much easier. Ebonite, Delrin, Alumilite or metals such as brass work well.

 

[jcgolov]

I am using soft wood, mainly pin wood with a lot of knots because I love the end product. This is when using pen kits etc. I would love to make the same for fountain pens. So I have used CA glue which has worked a couple of times but the attempts resulted mainly in massive failures. I have a plan in my head that when I make this first one in wood , then I will try with ebonite or other medium. I have a feeling that I am putting the horses before the cart! However I love this wood very much and would like to write with one of this pens. I also would like to solve this problem before moving on. Reading the post I think my methodology is wrong and I am going to rethink and start using the brass water nipple. I also read about using ebonite glue and fillers to fill the threads then drill into it and cut the thread thereafter.
A lot of trying to do ahead!
Thank you for the tips. Going to watch more videos. Thanks for the link for the youtube video. However this was this video that gave me the idea in the first place. The only thing I did not follow is the use of nipples etc. Will do for sure

 

[Paul in OKC]

The coarser the thread, the more 'push off' you will have in soft materials. As said above, I would slowly increase the hole size for the tap first. Also if you can get some CA glue to soak in that will help. Another thought is to leave as much material on the blank as possible where the threading will be, then turn it away will give parts a bit more support as well.

 

[jcgolov]

Joey - would be able to give me a link to one of those water nipples so I can picture them in my head. The reason is that I am trying to source untreated ones so I can do what you said but the only ones I can find in the UK are all threaded with a coarse thread it seems. I know absolutely nothing about pipe work! God I feel a little inadequate....

 

[KBs Pensnmore]

Hi and welcome to a fantastic forum. God I feel a little inadequate... We were all in that place at some stage, so don't feel that way.
I could explain a nipple, but would probably get kicked off here, so basically it's a hollow piece of metal (brass or steel) with a hexagonal section in the middle and a thread on either side. Used to connect various fittings together, used for air, or liquids.
Kryn

 

[jcgolov]

got you. I saw them when looking around. Many thanks.

 

[mredburn]

I have threaded wood. There are several problems with what you want to do. One you need to be threading on a part of the wood that has no knots or hard spots, burl, etc. The plainer the grain the better. THe 71/6 threads are so coarse you are just chewing the wood up trying to thread it. Instead of the die grabbing the new formed threads and pulling itself forward cutting more threads like on metal, the threads on the die act like a saw and just shred the wood. If you have the 1 inch adjustable round die you may be able to loosen it as far as it will go and then get your threads started. THen make several passes tightening the die on each pass.
Perhaps burnishing the tenon before you try and thread it would help.

Most of my threading on wood used a .75mm pitch and involves a single point threading tool on a metal lathe. I cut the threads .1mm deep at a time and did many passes.

 

[Joey-Nieves]

Joey - would be able to give me a link to one of those water nipples so I can picture them in my head. The reason is that I am trying to source untreated ones so I can do what you said but the only ones I can find in the UK are all threaded with a coarse thread it seems. I know absolutely nothing about pipe work! God I feel a little inadequate....

I buy the 6" length and cut it in 2" sections, the reason I do this is because I don't have access to a brass tube supplier locally. Now the purpose is to be able to make a thinner pen without breaking the threads, also I'm a big fan of segmenting so I use to support the wood, This is my wife's pen