Tapping & Dieing

[Warm Worm]

Moving along from an exhausting art discussion thread and onto another thread a stroke more practical, I thought to ask if anyone has ever, er, died or tapped a thread by hand. Home Depot seems to have these tap and die sets and I'd thought about it for a project or two in the past, but was a little wary of the process as a newbie and the fact that I was using fairly hard stainless rods at the time. Anyone ever done this, and/or how easy might it be to do, especially with harder metals, and what might the results be in terms of accuracy and strength? Are there other applications or effects for these things beyond what I think?

[Warm Worm]

"Don"

Cool. On what kind of metal? Stainless steel?

Now that I think about it, maybe that's why I was a little wary. I suppose one could get a local machine shop to do it for a few dimes.

Wow, by hand? I'm aware of his show and appreciate functional threads in wood. It's something that'd be nice to see more of, and be able to do.

[Lou Gray]

Here's a way to learn to cut threads for a lot less, and contribute to the trade deficit all at the same time!

There is also a smaller set for $9.99. They may not be good in a production environment, but for the hobbyist or occasional use they are hard to beat.

[Warm Worm]

"Don"

The years I wasted in high school was a tragedy. I don't recall ever having a shop class, and yours sounded well worth having. It might have helped keep me in school too-- like technical drawing (ie. drafting).

Cool... With primitive knowledge, one can survive in times of great pestilence and strife. :) Knowledge not to be diminished or underestimated.

I still want to take some sort of survival training lite.

[Warm Worm]

That's good to know, thanks!

"Lou Gray"