Thread Chasing

[John Boyles]

Hello,

Could someone who has experiance tell me the most appropriate speed (revolutions per minuit) required to chase threads by hand. I have a jet mini lathe and a larger jet lathe, the lowest rpm that can be achieved on either is 450. I'm trying to find out if my lathes would turn slow enough to make this possible.I will research this more on my own, but your opinions would be valuable to me.

Thanks, John

 

[john lucas]

John I'm new at chasing and have been experimenting with speeds. What I've found is the finer the pitch the higher the speed you can use. I learned on 20 TPI and didn't have any trouble with 500 rpm. When I went to 16TPI it got tougher and 10TPI was really fast. I slowed down to about 250 and the 10 TPI was tolerable. Now that I have a month of playing I'm getting to where I can use the courser threaders at the higher speeds. Get a 16 or 20 TPI threader and go for it. It's hard at first so don't give up. I learned on PVC and Corian so the cost of all the errors was minimal.

 

[John Boyles]

John,

Thank you for this specific information information. This is exactly what I needed to know. Could you possibly recommend any books or articles on the subject.

Thanks,

John

 

[jffink]

Allan Batty (via Craft Supplies USA) has a nice dvd called "Hand Thread Chasing" that I got as a gift about a year ago. It's nice to be able to replay parts of it repeatedly until you (think you) know how one should chase threads. Allan points out in the video that you just need to lock yourself away for about a year of practicing to get good at it! I've only tried chasing threads a couple of times on scrap, using a set of chasing tools that I ordered from Ray Iles' The Old Tool Store in England - I hope to find time to work at it more this summer. Here's the Ray Iles link: http://www.oldtools.free-online.co.uk/turningtools.htm

Regards,
John

 

[John Boyles]

jffink

Thanks for the info.. The responses that I've received here and the references I've found or been referred to should be enough to get me started.

Thanks to All

 

[john lucas]

Alan Batty's is excellent. If you would rather have a book get Fred Holder's book on theading. It covers all styles including chasing.

 

[John Boyles]

Thead Chasing

Having the book for immediate reference and able to be kept near the lathe will be quite helpful.

 

[LHauch]

Hi John,
Also practice on PVC pipe you can get at the big box stores (about $4 for 8 feet) cut into 2-3 in pieces. The 1 3/4 size is good for starting. It's a lot cheaper than the very hard/dense wood needed for thread chasing.
(That said, there are tools, like Bonnie Klein's, that can chase threads even on softer hardwoods like maple - not hand thread chasing, but if you don't have access to the dense stuff, they are an option.)

Cheers,

 

[john lucas]

I have the Baxter threader from www.bestwoodtools.com I use it for the softer woods. I wanted to learn hand chasing for projects that use hard wood and need sizes that are larger or smaller than I can do with the Baxter threader.
I practiced on PVC. I find wood much easier to thread so if you can thread PVC and Corian you can thread wood.