Originally Posted by
Halfnutz
I could, the change gears are such a pain, and Im not very adept at lathe threading. I like thread milling because its so easy, but, wow, I am just in shock at the cost of tooling these days. I found a double angle at mari that will cut a 12TPI for $56.00, but I allready ordered one from rogue, the two guys in So. Oregon, for 38 bucks. Its really a little small for a 12TPI, but I think it will work OK. Im working towards a set of round boring bars, probably have to cut them down, and the ability to use different inserts for different pitches for large threads, which are the ones that are such a pain to tap or thread with a die. Like ball nuts, axle ends, etc. I do have a 15/16 x 16TPI tap for the Thompson 5/8" ballnuts which use to be the goto before the asians started selling metric ballscrews for so cheap, but man that M.F. is a real bruiser to use. I cant even imagine trying to cut a 1.5 inch 12TPI into steel by hand. Maybe cast iron, but I have a steel backplate. I'm getting too old for that. I do have a pipe threader that I could use if I could find the right inserts for it, but those cost a small fortune too, and there are very few available pitch inserts available for them, mainly just pipe standards, and they are all tapered threads. The nice thing about thread milling is the flexibility.
edit: I just remembered the pipe threader cuts outside threads, so it wouldn't help anyway.