Inside threading, can you recommend some tooling?

[WobblyHand]

This just is calling out for high speed steel hand ground tool bit. For a few dollar piece of steel and a little time on a grinder you can have something that will work for a one off item. I have even taken a broken tap and ground one down so the remaining tooth is the cutting bit. Cost is little and I learned some along the way.

I agree. Don't have a grinder that can do this right now. I have a belt grinder with a rest. I've done lathe tooling with it. Also have a horrible pedestal grinder with tin foil rests. The horrible grinder has nothing solid to bolt to for a rest. The shields are made of thin sheet metal, rather than being cast. Hard to adapt. Sure I could make it work, but I think making a little boring bar like @Larry$ is a much easier task. I can grind the tooling on my belt grinder.

 

[WobblyHand]

I use Joe Pie method and use LH boring bar style holder like this one. That size will get you down to 1/2" thread. I use LH micro 100 carbide for smaller sizes. When you use the LH tool, your on backside of hole and running spindle in reverse. You can set your zero (tool bumps in hole) with lathe off and thread out. You can get pretty small with the micro 100 but usually better to use a tap when you get that small.

Does your URL and Joe Pie method cut a RH thread or LH? Jeepers, I have to set things up in slow motion and watch. It confuses the daylights out of me. Compounding this is the fact that mini-lathes are not full featured, so I have to just try it and see if it is possible.

I like micro 100 tools, but they are fragile. Once I build up some technique I'll probably get some more. Broke one boring bar. As a learning beginner, they are unforgiving! They leave an awesome finish.

 

[Larry$]

That Shars bar that xr650 linked seems like a fair deal for about $44 total. I didn't check how much a box of inserts cost but it came with one insert.

I follow Joe Pie and like his methods. Especially when it comes to threading. Threading away from the chuck makes way more sense to me than playing chicken going the other way.

 

[WobblyHand]

That Shars bar that xr650 linked seems like a fair deal for about $44 total. I didn't check how much a box of inserts cost but it came with one insert.

I follow Joe Pie and like his methods. Especially when it comes to threading. Threading away from the chuck makes way more sense to me than playing chicken going the other way.

The inserts from Shars are kind of expensive, but there's all kinds of choices on eBay, including brand names. Hope the tool doesn't use a proprietary insert. Probably going to buy the Shars bar AND make a boring bar. If nothing else, I'll use the homemade boring bar with a groover, which I need anyways to form the thread relief.

 

[xr650rRider]

Does your URL and Joe Pie method cut a RH thread or LH? Jeepers, I have to set things up in slow motion and watch. It confuses the daylights out of me. Compounding this is the fact that mini-lathes are not full featured, so I have to just try it and see if it is possible.

I like micro 100 tools, but they are fragile. Once I build up some technique I'll probably get some more. Broke one boring bar. As a learning beginner, they are unforgiving! They leave an awesome finish.

it cuts a RH thread. Joe explains in his first video on threading away from chuck, if leadscrew and spindle rotate same direction, you cut a RH thread, if they turn opposite, you cut a LH thread.

Joe Pie explanantion

 

[Larry$]

but there's all kinds of choices on eBay, including brand names

I've wandered about how those brand name inserts can be sold so cheap from China. Suspect something is amiss.

 

[xr650rRider]

I've got some of the cheap ones, they come with the Precision Matthews turning and boring sets, probably $2 each and they seem to work great. The silver ones intended for aluminum, seem to work great on steel or aluminum. You'll run into ER (external) and IR (internal) inserts. The ER will work on a RH outside or LH inside threading tool and IR on a LH outside or RH inside tool.

 

[WobblyHand]

it cuts a RH thread. Joe explains in his first video on threading away from chuck, if leadscrew and spindle rotate same direction, you cut a RH thread, if they turn opposite, you cut a LH thread.

Thanks. Sometimes this stuff doesn't stick, until one experiences it!

Just spent the last 1/2 hour rigging up a fine point sharpie in a boring bar holder to trace out the threads in a bored test piece. What fooled me was I was looking at the back side and the slant of the threads was unfamiliar. Had to pick up a RH screw and look at it from the other side, to believe what I saw on the lathe. So on a mini-lathe it's reverse spindle and left feed. Both the spindle and lead screw are rotating CW looking into the headstock, and the carriage is feeding away from the head stock.

Ok. Think I know what to do now. These 11ER inserts, (for a LH tool, threading outward) any special coating to look for stainless? (Yes, I know the test piece is aluminum!) Edit: ack! answered in previous post.

 

[WobblyHand]

I've wandered about how those brand name inserts can be sold so cheap from China. Suspect something is amiss.

Suspect many are counterfeit. For the use I am giving them, just learning, probably fine. Most of the inserts I've bought, even from Hong Kong, have been fine. Between you and me, I'd rather pay $1 per, than $10 or more, especially since I'm not making a living at this.

 

[xr650rRider]

I made bushings for all my internal threading and boring bars, then use an Aloris BXA-4D holder which has a 1" bore. you could split the bushings but I put in set screws. I've got a 1-1/2" OD piece of aluminum bar that is cut exactly to my center position, so setting it on flat way and using a straight edge, quick and easy to set tools on center. While I have a grooving tool, I rarely cut a thread relief. I'm using my DRO to set an exact start position, I do NOT use compound only cross slide and feed straight in, so I'm starting in same position every time. If I had a thread that needed to bottom then I'd cut a relief.