studioso
Member
hi,
so I finally got around trying the tap and die purchased by the group (thanks Joe), on the clear cheap acrylic rod (thanks George) and I'm having some trouble.
talking about the die, I assumed that I needed between .450 and .470 ( I tried 4 different width within that range) width to make a decent thread, tapered the first 1/16th or so, I lubed with wd-40, made sure to back up half a turn after every turn, and still I had no good peaks: I don't have a picture handy but it looks like a stripped bolt- no rough surfaces but just valleys, no peaks it looks (and feels) like I was stripping the thread at some point of the operation.
what am I doing wrong?
-is there an issue with backing up the die too often? is it necessary to stop every few threads to take off the die and clear any chips inside?
-I use this die holder from little machine shop which slides on the arbor that fits in the morse taper. is it OK to lock to tailstock the bed? does it matter if the ram is unlocked?
on a separate note: what's your good method (and tool) to get a nice uniform width on the blank?, without tapers, so to speak?
I'm sorry for asking all these questions at once, just figured all the info necessary to use the set can go in this thread.
thanks for reading
so I finally got around trying the tap and die purchased by the group (thanks Joe), on the clear cheap acrylic rod (thanks George) and I'm having some trouble.
talking about the die, I assumed that I needed between .450 and .470 ( I tried 4 different width within that range) width to make a decent thread, tapered the first 1/16th or so, I lubed with wd-40, made sure to back up half a turn after every turn, and still I had no good peaks: I don't have a picture handy but it looks like a stripped bolt- no rough surfaces but just valleys, no peaks it looks (and feels) like I was stripping the thread at some point of the operation.
what am I doing wrong?
-is there an issue with backing up the die too often? is it necessary to stop every few threads to take off the die and clear any chips inside?
-I use this die holder from little machine shop which slides on the arbor that fits in the morse taper. is it OK to lock to tailstock the bed? does it matter if the ram is unlocked?
on a separate note: what's your good method (and tool) to get a nice uniform width on the blank?, without tapers, so to speak?
I'm sorry for asking all these questions at once, just figured all the info necessary to use the set can go in this thread.
thanks for reading