Comments on: A Rare Rant About Threadboxes

By: wphred

wphred — Thu, 13 Sep 2012 23:19:37 +0000

In one of the earlier issues of Fine Woodworking (I have it in their Techiniques 1 book) Richard Starr has an article on how to make your own tap and screwbox. While I have not made one, his method looks straightforward… still a fair amount of work though.

By: DCMurphy

DCMurphy — Tue, 11 Sep 2012 21:15:58 +0000

Didn’t know about the German tools. At that price they’re not a real option for most of us, but it’s nice to see they got the thread pitch correct. Roubo specified a pitch between 1:12 and 1:18, and the German thread-cutters are all in that range. The ones from Beall and Woodcraft are too fine in the three largest sizes (1″ and up).

I guess until Lie-Nielsen or Lee Valley get around to it, the Beall system is the lesser evil. I know it’s frustrating to buy a router for just this one application, but you can get a trim router for well under $100 these days. Or you can do what Roy did: buy the taps from Beall and use them to make your own threadboxes.

By: Jason Gangl

Jason Gangl — Fri, 07 Sep 2012 23:19:25 +0000

Ron Hock may be able to make a blade as well. I had him make a tongue and groove blade set for my Stanley #148 recently. It works so much better than the original it’s not even a comparison. The set was $60, so I would guess that a small thread box cutter would be reasonable.

By: Ballard Pops

Ballard Pops — Fri, 07 Sep 2012 22:26:27 +0000

I should have added that he is on Lumberjocks as CartersWhittling. I’m a new Great Grandfather so that’s my excuse!

By: Ballard Pops

Ballard Pops — Fri, 07 Sep 2012 22:24:26 +0000

Howdy All, there’s a young fellow over on Lumberjocks that has 5 (i think) videos on this subject. Starts out with a little theory and progresses to making the screws for his workbench vises. It is a blended sort of solution. He makes his own die in several sizes, the big one is 2 threads per inch with a cutter defined at 90 degrees(don’t see a degree symbol on my keyboard) . Then he uses a take off on the Beall system, using a 90 degree v-shaped cutter in a shop made router jig. He used this method to make the screws for leg, shoulder and tail vises on his combination Roubo/Klausz style bench. This young man is only 19 but his work is amazing. He deserves a look at his gallery, makes many of his own tools. Sorry for being so long winded. I’m all gassed out now, where’s my oxygen tank.:-(
Pops

By: apbeelen

apbeelen — Fri, 07 Sep 2012 19:55:42 +0000

The area of wood threading is one that has frustrated this hobbyist traditional woodworker for many years. I have some of the Taiwanese wood threading toys you speak of, and agree wholeheartedly that they are junk. As a woodworker who only uses antique wooden planes (no Stanley or other metal planes), I understand that these types of tools require fine tuning and practice to make them work well, but I’ve compared these new dies to an old one I have, and I believe that the geometry of the cutter placement isn’t correct. Also, in comparison to wood threads on antique wooden clamps, marking gauges, plough planes, and bench vises, the threads cut (if you can get them cut) on these new tap and die sets are too small, and therefore inadequate in strength and speed of adjustment in comparison to the antique competition. As a hobbyist, paying someone to custom make a set, or paying the astronomical prices for the German sets is out of the question. Finding usable or even complete antique sets is also difficult to impossible. As for the router option, I may as well buy the expensive German sets, since I don’t own a router, and at the same time, I may as well buy metal screws to replace the wood ones. No self respecting traditional woodworker would admit to having a router in his/her shop, and as for me, I have no outlets in my shop to plug in a router anyway. Saint Roy would jump out of his red suspenders if he heard of a traditional woodworker going over to the dark side of power tools! Bottom line…I’d love for one of our American toolmaker friends such as Lie-Nielsen to put this on thier new product development list. And I could say the same for brace and bits…Jennings bits, center bits, spoon bits, gimlets…

By: samson141

samson141 — Fri, 07 Sep 2012 12:28:44 +0000

Ditto! Chris, I really don’t understand the sentiment “I’m not a router user.” I always assumed you were a “best tool for the job” user. We all have our preferences to get to our woodworking ends; and I think they are all valid if they reach those ends – like say strong and functional wood threads. I draw the line when a hand or power or tool alternative fails to yield an acceptable functional result. Use what works; don’t let purist dogma get in the way. The Beall system rocks!

By: Marty Collins

Marty Collins — Fri, 07 Sep 2012 06:49:24 +0000

Try High Speed Steel (HSS). It sharpens well, its tough (which is what this application needs) and blanks in various sizes can be gotten from McMaster-Carr and other industrial supply vendors. And if in a real hurry, visit a local small tool & die / machine shop and they should be able to set you up. They may even grind it to your spec if you ask nicely . . . or promise fresh donuts and coffee . . . or both.

By: keltor

keltor — Thu, 06 Sep 2012 13:42:16 +0000

You should definitely learn to harden stuff on site. It’s not perfect and it really could actually be quite bad, but as soon as you know the edge is coming apart, you know that it can’t be worse.

For some small cutter like that it should really be made of O1 and you could probably have 20 blanks by buying pre-hardened steel OR buying an annealed blank, grinding them and then sending them to a local hardening place (almost every town over like 20k people will have at least one place.)

By: Tim

Tim — Thu, 06 Sep 2012 06:30:57 +0000

I watched that episode a few days ago. Made a cutter at work today and am sharpening it now. I was going to mention Saint Roy, but you beat me to it