DIY screws

Very beautiful work :)

Likewise. Its gratifying to see someone can still do that!...

Have Google on BSPT.

go into wood, mainly out of brass but also steel if that is possible. Large brass screws are very expensive in small quantities, and I need maybe one or half a dozen of lots of different sizes (to match those in 100 year old vehicles if you must know) After making machine screws as above, I though maybe I could buy dies that would cut a suitable thread. I could buy a screw cutting attachment for a lathe but that is very expensive. Unless I invent or make one! Hmmm there's an idea.

Thanks! There is not a lot of room in the workshop. My messy bench is on the right:

What you want is a ball turning tool. See:

That's very clever. The tool I made just has a quarter circle shape. Since the head of the screw is very close to the chuck jaws I have to be careful.

Make one.... Go on.... You know you want to :-)

A 'form tool' that's called. Can put quite a lot of strain on a small lathe but a valid way to do things all the same.

Thanks for that, Scott. Impressive; I must follow all the links through. Rob

Cutting a tapered thread can be done on a lathe, between centres with an offset tailstock (so you turn a taper). I'm pretty sure there's no die available - what diameter hole would it have? They are produced commercially by squishing (tech term there) between

Phil.

My pleasure, Rob.

There's two schools of thought on making these. If the one above can be considered 'vertical' the alternative is using a boring head in the horizontal plane.

I don't have a mill (so no bore head) so I made the vertical one and two different sized arms; one for sitting on the cross slide and the other for use on the vertical slide to allow bigger diameters to be turned.

Thomas Prufer

Stupid question time now.

What sort of lathe moves the chuck in and out and left and right, instead of the cutter?

Dave

I was just going to say exactly the same thing! I was gobsmacked by your talent with an angle grinder :-)

I was wondering that, but I also wondered if he'd clamped the camera to the tool carriage (what's that really called?)

It's an illusion, watch the bed below the chuck.

You want to build a Quorn:

I've seen them in many a book and to this day I've still no idea what one does, but they don't half look good! :-)