Big taps?

Just use a 1" - 8 tpi nut! While I've not ever found one of these at a Lowes or Home Depot, I find them at all the ACE Hardware and semi-local hardware stores.

What I do is take a block of wood (hard maple is my usual choice) about 1" thick and turn it round. Then I turn a little recess about 1/2" deep in it that the nut will fit into snuggly. I put the nut in there and use a good glue (polyurethane is fine) to keep it there. NOTE: Don't get the glue in the threads! It'll foam up but I just cut that away. Put that nut/wood on your lathe and true up the face of the wood. For a glue chuck, I glue another piece of wood (again about 1") onto that 1st piece of wood. This wood is my waste block wood. I can do whatever I want to with that and just replace it when needed. To make a screw chuck, I simply bore a hole in the wood through the center of that nut and use a modified bolt. You can glue it in or just leave it free spinning along with a lock-nut so it'll tighten down good and not spin. You could make small faceplates or just whatever you want with this arrangement. I think I paid under $2US for the nut. I got this tip from a club member and it's worked great.

Yes, you can tap wood but it'll need to be a hard, tight-grained wood to work at all. Personally, I wouldn't trust it but I know of several turners that do and have for a long time.

- Andrew

AHilton wrote: Just use a 1" - 8 tpi nut! (clip) ^^^^^^^^^^^ I do that a lot, using epoxy to hold it. You can make wooden faceplates, vacuum chucks and jam chucks. I usually start with a hefty piece of wood, and keep turning it to suit individual projects. When it starts to get thin, I just add another slab of waste wood with Elmer's glue. And I have a few different shapes lying around, so I always reach for the one which requires the least modification. ^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Silvan wrote: (clip) Can you actually tap wood acceptably with a metal tap (clip) ^^^^^^^^^^^^ You can, but, as Andrew says, it works best in hard wood. Some time ago I was the successful bidder on a lot of 1" x 8TPI taps, and if you had been around at that time, I would have gladly sent you one. Now, I have only one left, which I am keeping it.

No experience with these folks, but I have them bookmarked since they're one of the few that offer 1x12 taps:

HI, If you have an industrial fastener outlet near you, you can buy a 1" X 8 TPI grade 8 bolt and cut triangular reliefs at several places around the end so that it cuts like a tap. It can be used on hard woods, aluminum and copper. Since it already has a hex head, it makes operation with a ratchet or box end wrench easy. You should be able to get a short one for a couple of bucks. This should take you through occasional use. If you expect to do a lot of this, you may want to go ahead and spring for the tap and have the hardened cutter that should last a life time threading wood, unless you work some of the high silica woods like mesquite. For a good selection of taps you can try places like MSC.

Ken Moon Webberville, TX

Try Ebay. I just got two 1 1/4"-8 taps. They cost me $3 and $9 + shipping. You just have to be patient and spend some time going through the searches.

I prefer the Tap approach. I've gone the route of making face plates with nuts, however, I had to have a friend cut an internal recess in the nut so it would seat tightly on the spindle flange.

Juergen

Silvan wrote:

What were the auction numbers for those? I'd like to see how they were listed so I can develop a search myself. Thanks!

Peter Teubel Milford, MA

Michael Try my web site under "Make a Wood Glue Block" for instructions on how I do this very thing.

so I can develop a search myself. Thanks!

Well, here's two separate auctions:

and

When I did my search, I looked in the Business & Industrial >

Metalworking > Cutting Tools, Consumables > Taps category and found them there.

You do need to use a fairly good hardwood for the threads to hold decently. Poplar works ok, I'm sure Maple would be great (I've got a stack of 3" wide Goncalo Alves boards that taps like a dream), anything softer than Poplar just shreds. Make sure the grain is perpendicular to the lathe bed though, I haven't had much luck trying it the other way.

- Mike

-- Natharias at lycos dot com

so I can develop a search myself. Thanks!

Thanks, but I have lots of 1"x8TPI taps. Its the 1.25x8 that I need. And I was wondering how they were listed (i.e. key words, etc.)

Peter Teubel Milford, MA

listed so I can develop a search myself. Thanks!

wondering how they were listed (i.e. key words,

Doing a search on (everything between the <

in the Business & Industrial category brought up 2 pages with a selection of 1 1/4" taps (Ebay makes these kinds of searches difficult cause you can't do a search with a slash in it), but none in 8 TPI. A bunch in 12 TPI and 7 TPI, but not 8.

possible search terms would include: 8, 1.25, "1 4", "1 1 4", "11 4", tap, taps in whatever combination nets the most signal with the less noise. (it's a little wierd, but doing a search for "11 4" will bring up anything that reads 11/4, "1 1 4" -> 1 1/4, "1 4" -> 1/4)

- Mike

Grizzly has threaded inserts to fit just about any spindle. One for your 1" x 8 RH is $6.95, and has three holes through which you could bolt or screw just about anything.

Max

listed so I can develop a search myself. Thanks!

was wondering how they were listed (i.e. key words,

Billh

Peter

I used the 1 1/4-8 and restricted the search to business and industrial. Then I forced Ebay to display pictures and just browsed through the listings.

Good Luck

Juergen

Peter Teubel wrote:

so I can develop a search myself. Thanks!