ruadh80
Member
I started making pens a couple months ago and had been really struggling with the male cap/barrel threads. I was using a tailstock mounted floating die holder, I tried making my tenon a little smaller, I tried making my tenon an little bigger, I tried clearing the chips more frequently, I tried not clearing them all, I tried doing it by hand and I tried letting the lathe do it... no matter what I did, it would shear off the top of my threads 80% of the time. I would have to start with an extra inch of material so I could try over and over and still have enough left to make the barrel by the time I got good threads. Even doing that I managed to ruin a lot of material. The only good thing about it is that I got REALLY good at turning down a tenon within 0.05mm of my desired diameter really fast (because I got a LOT of practice).
My suspicion was that my $20 chinesium tap and die weren't quite right. I used this as an excuse to buy a triple lead Tapco tap and die. I figured if I still couldn't get good threads it was obviously something I was doing wrong or maybe my die holder wasn't lining up right.
I got the Tapco tap and die... it makes perfect threads EVERY TIME!
So if you have tried everything under the sun and still can't reliably get good threads... try buying a quality die.
My suspicion was that my $20 chinesium tap and die weren't quite right. I used this as an excuse to buy a triple lead Tapco tap and die. I figured if I still couldn't get good threads it was obviously something I was doing wrong or maybe my die holder wasn't lining up right.
I got the Tapco tap and die... it makes perfect threads EVERY TIME!
So if you have tried everything under the sun and still can't reliably get good threads... try buying a quality die.