Using the Cross Slide for Threading

Looking good Mike! Try this, before taking your last couple of final passes, run a long angle lathe file or mill file over the crests and/or scotchbrite to get rid of most of those burs. Then take your final cut & a spring pass if needed. And when you get close to your final passes, take very light DOCs before the final. Your threads should come out beautiful like this!

(This feels weird, I can't believe I'm giving The Doc advise. :confused:)

This was done on my old HF 8x14
img_6102-jpg.159154
 
To add to this thread... (well not much really)

I always thread using the compound. That's how I was taught & that's what I'm used to. I've tried threading with just the cross slide & it came out fine on aluminum 20 TPI, 304 not so much. I don't like it, just not used to it I guess. I only tried it cause this subject came up a while back on another forum. Never knew it would make a difference for coarser than 20 TPI (good to know) but then again I never did try any coarser than 20 TPI.

I thread harder materials like SS & Ti often. Using the compound gives me better results. As Bob mentioned, another reason I like using the compound cause it's easy to keep track of DOC. When threading with the cross slide I quickly lost track of where I was at. However lots of times I will thread with the compound, then make my final pass with the cross slide.

Threads on Ti 6Al4V (grade 5)

IMG_3021.JPG

Img_1397.JPG
 
and finally the 304....
to add to the challenge i pushed myself further than my comfort level and added the challenge of making the thread be an interrupted thread, in stub scrap 304 SS.

304ss 1.jpg
(this is the same piece of material)
IMG_2696.JPG

i used anchor lube and took .002" cuts and dialed in .031" for the stop.
i think the threads turned out very well.
i feel kinda stupid that i thought it was going to be a lot worse than it ever was :oops:

take my lead, the dragons are what you make of them.

don't waste too much time ,slay each dragon one by one!;)
 
Looking good Mike! Try this, before taking your last couple of final passes, run a long angle lathe file or mill file over the crests and/or scotchbrite to get rid of most of those burs. Then take your final cut & a spring pass if needed. And when you get close to your final passes, take very light DOCs before the final. Your threads should come out beautiful like this!

(This feels weird, I can't believe I'm giving The Doc advise. :confused:)

I'm ecstatic that i learned something new and was able to do things differently.
i'm very appreciative of you and all the good folks here on the forum that share knowledge freely.
i can't ever be too knowledgeable to listen to good advice.
thanks for giving it to me straight :tranquility:
 
To add to this thread... (well not much really)

I always thread using the compound. That's how I was taught & that's what I'm used to. I've tried threading with just the cross slide & it came out fine on aluminum 20 TPI, 304 not so much. I don't like it, just not used to it I guess. I only tried it cause this subject came up a while back on another forum. Never knew it would make a difference for coarser than 20 TPI (good to know) but then again I never did try any coarser than 20 TPI.
I thread harder materials like SS & Ti often. Using the compound gives me better results. As Bob mentioned, another reason I like using the compound cause it's easy to keep track of DOC. When threading with the cross slide I quickly lost track of where I was at. However lots of times I will thread with the compound, then make my final pass with the cross slide.
Threads on Ti 6AL4V (grade 5)
Wow Will, that looks beautiful!
very nice threads
 
I'm ecstatic that i learned something new and was able to do things differently.
i'm very appreciative of you and all the good folks here on the forum that share knowledge freely.
i can't ever be too knowledgeable to listen to good advice.
thanks for giving it to me straight :tranquility:

I hear ya! Learning from your mistakes & through experience is one thing but it's great to learn from the experienced ones too. That what makes this place so great, lots of knowledgeable people with different ways of doing things!

I don't know any machinists around here but I was lucky to learn from an experienced machinist at the local CC. If it weren't for my little brother who decided to take the class cause he needed technical credits, I'd probably still be scared to single point threads. Inwas his ride there & back so I figure why not take the class with him. He took 1 semester, I finished the entire course. Good timing cause my instructor retired when I completed the course.

When I got into machining I was set to make things out of titanium. It took a lot of cussing, burnt tools, scrapped ti, & sore feet to learn, even caught my lathe on fire too! After that, most other common materials seemed so easy. I guess all beginners should start learning using Ti! :)
 
I would say I learned from this thread...but I need compound DOC VS the dial reading of the compound explained. If this isn't on topic enough I can start a new post....and also relate this 14.5 degree setups. :)

Mike that looks great!
 
I would say I learned from this thread...but I need compound DOC VS the dial reading of the compound explained. If this isn't on topic enough I can start a new post....and also relate this 14.5 degree setups. :)

Mike that looks great!
The depth of cut is the cosine of the angle times the tool travel. For your 14.5 degree angle, I assume you would set the compound to 7.25 degrees. Then you multiply the distance moved on the compound times .992 to get the achieved depth of cut. (It is really close enough to 1 to be disregarded...)
 
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