Wooden Threads

[Sonny]

Got the two nuts threaded. Blanks (ash wood) are about 4"X5"X5", to be trimmed to size to fit onto the table. The pilot hole drilled in the first blank was 1-5/8" (1.625"), slightly too small. Instructions called for 42mm hole, which is 1.65". For the second blank I used an adjustable bit for proper size hole. I used a rasp to widen the first too-small of hole.

This robust threader worked great. First nut took about 2 minutes to thread, once all prep was set up. Second set-up took 2 minutes and it took 60 seconds to thread the blank. Threads fit the table screw perfectly. I'm pleased.

Tried to salvage/thread the hand carved half nut (from 2 months ago), but that didn't work out well. My carved threads weren't quite aligned correctly and the threader ripped apart most of the threads. Other half nut *pic shows chiseling a larger pilot hole.

5 pics total, scroll right. Sonny

[DerbyDad03]

Nice!

I assume the barrel portion is the exact same size as the pilot hole to ensure the threads are plumb, right?

[krw]

These are probably smaller than what you wanted but thought of this conversation when I saw them.

[Leon]

Very cool! Nothing like having the tool for the job!.

[Sonny]

Thanks.

Yes. The barrel tip of the threader is 42mm diameter. A 1-5/8" drill bit is too small. This length of barrel portion seems to help guide and keep straight, inside the pilot hole, the track of the threading.

Also, it seems the cutters will cut the thread valley a bit deeper into the barrel. Might be two reasons for this: 1) Don't want an absolute tight fit and 2) Some play for expansion/contraction of the wood, itself. Sonny

[Sonny]

Yep, too small for my work bench vise. Vise threads are 2.5 threads per inch. At the moment, I don't have a use, or think of a potential need for these small of taps.

Sonny

[Sonny]

Just a little tear out at the beginning of threading. The mineral oil softened the ash wood, lending to the initial tear out... not bad though. Also, when drilling the pilot hole, the softened wood collected on the drill bit's cutting edge, so the initial drilling was start and stop, to clean the cutting edge.

The ash wood may not have been the best/recommended choice. I'll prep some cherry for another nut threading.

Sonny

[DerbyDad03]

So no ability to cut a stopped thread, like you can with a bottoming tap.

You could still cut blind threads, but you'd need that extra room.

Did you have to back it out every now and then to clear the waste?

[krw]

Kinda like an Origin Shaper, huh. ;-)

[krw]

Tap deeper, cut the excess off, and plug if necessary?

I'd think so. Aluminum has the same problem and I think they're quite similar in that way. I'd think cross-grain wood would chip, like aluminum rather than cut like brass. ...or drilling vs. planing.

[DerbyDad03]

Obviously depends on the project. A through tap and veneer to cover hole might work too. Lots of options but...it depends.

You'd think so. I'd think so too.

Sonny knows. ;-)

[Sonny]

Not directly. As said subsequently, tap, then plug or cover the bottom end.... easy enough.

No. The initial barrel insert is open, sleeve like. The debris readily falls out the bottom.

Also, the original nut is tapped cross grain. This makes sense, as tapped along the grain would be more apt for the threads to break.

As to tear out, see pic. Scroll right for 3 more pics showing insert barrel, original nut and tear out.

I haven't tried the die yet. I can't locate the video I saw 2 months ago. With the die, the (video) worker did repeatedly back off to clear the chip debris. I don't recall what kind of wood he used, if it was mentioned at all.

Sonny

[Leon]

Yeah!

[DerbyDad03]

That's interesting. I tapped a lot of steel in back in my Derby racing days and still do some every now and then for some projects. It's not about the debris falling out of the bottom of an open hole, it's more about the debris getting jammed in the tap's cutting threads.

Once the tap gets clogged up, you run the risk of snapping it. I did that one time as a rookie and screwed up a critical part. The tap was buried a 1/2" into a steel plate and broke off flush with surface. Obviously that won't happen with wood, but I wonder if it got tighter as you went. Maybe the threads would be cleaner if you backed it out a 1/2" turn or so every couple of forward turns?

I really take my time now. Even after hundreds and hundreds of holes, that sickening Snap! is always front and center when I'm tapping.

[Sonny]

The debris never has a chance to get jammed in the threads. Similarly as with a hand plane, once the iron shaves the wood, the shaved sliver rises up and out from the cut area. The knife aspect of the threader is immediately open to the inside of the barrel, hence the shaving, as it is cut, is guided into the inside of the barrel.

In this pic, looking down into the barrel from its bottom, you can see daylight. That "daylight" is the opening from the cutting edge to the inside of the barrel. There are three cutting edges on the tap. Each cuts a share of the thread.

I have a cherry blank soaking in oil. In a week we'll see how well cherry threads.

OT- After a year and a half of trying, this morning I finally trapped that dang armadillo that's been digging my lawn.

Sonny

[DerbyDad03]

I read that too fast. I read "I finally *tapped* that dang armadillo..."

Doubled tap or did you get him with one shot? ;-)

[Sonny]

Havahart trap. Surprisingly very strong animals, bucking all kinds of ways in the trap, almost wrestled the trap from my grasp when carrying it.

You can't bait them into the trap. You find their general walkways, as best you can determine, and make a guide or some kind of channel for them to follow, leading to the trap. I had staked out 2X6X14s into "V" guides often. A hit-or-miss venture. I finally hit.

[DerbyDad03]

We have racoons most of the time. Not too bad this year. I have videos of a family coming into our garage through the cat door. I also have videos of them all confused and annoyed when I replaced it with one that locks.

Once year we had one that just kept getting a little to close. He'd come up on the deck (6' off the ground) and look in through the sliding door. He'd hang around in the driveway just a little too long after we'd open the garage door, etc.

I put out a Havahart and trapped him one night. He wasn't happy. I had the trap in an area of my yard that has mulch over landscape fabric. He pulled the fabric from about a 4' radius and piled it up all around the trap. I wasn't happy.

The town will relocate trapped critters so I called them. When the animal control guy brought the trap back later that day he said that they decided to put the racoon down. He didn't think it was rabies, but he had never seen a caged racoon as violent as that one was.

[Sonny]

Cherry nut blank threaded just as well/easy as the ash blanks. Same minimal tear out at the start and finish as with the ash. Took 60 seconds to thread the blank.

Haven't prepped a (2") rod to thread yet, but anxious to try a rod. I don't need a rod for the tables, but want to do one since I have the tool.

Sonny

[Jay Pique]

I would think sycamore would be a good wood for screws and threading due to the interlocking grain.