Grumpy old men

[LGS]

Some of the bubble packed stuff is well nigh impossible to unpack, you need tin snips to even open the package...

Regards
Ray

I actually purchased a Stanley type knife wrapped in a plastic wrap, which bore the instructions "Use knife to open"

Regards,

Rob

[IanW]

Shippers, I was wondering when we'd get back on track.

I think your idea of using a bolt as a tap will work fine - I have already tried it with smaller diameters & it does the job as long as you taper the end and chew out adequate chip slots. You need a scraping edge on the thread lands that form the thread (i.e. parallel to the radius, or even slightly relieved). I have a beaut 2" made for me by a friend. It's mild steel (perfectly adequate for wood, unless you plan to tap 50 holes a day for the next 3 years). To drive a 2" tap through hardwood takes an awesome amount of potatoe-power - mine uses a 600mm by 5/8" steel bar & I need help to get it through a 2 1/2" thick nut.

If you are planning to use the nut as a die, forget it, This G.O.M. agrees entirely with the other G.O.M. if that's what he was saying won't work. There may be some exceptional wood out there that you could thread with a metal-threading die, but 99.9% of them will simply crumble away. My advise is to chuck the nut in a drawer & leave it there 'til you find some other use for it. However, take heart, as there is a much better way of making a wooden screw using a router & a simple jig that takes all of 15 minutes to cobble up. Have a look at this

http://www.woodworkforums.ubeaut.com...reading+router

In that post I also showed some of the oddball taps I've used successfully. The tap is the part you need to start with - all else flows from there.

Go for it, but be warned - making wooden scews can be addictive!

Oh yeah, & useless pubescent youths in hardware stores infuriate me too - had one tell me the other day that "No, we don't have these at all,..." after barely glancing at the thing I was proffering as an example. Luckily, I was standing looking at the shelves while he was assuring me they weren't in the shop, and saw a whole rack of them - even the same brand as the worn part I was showing him..........
Cheers,

[SHIPPERS]

Thanks Ian.
my G.O.M was saying that the thread on the wood screw or bolt wouldnt hold up and not to bother trying unless it was going to be an ornament and if it were then i would be better off making the thing totally from hand rather than using a tap.
As for your threading jig, thats exactly what i was going to use.
Mine not yours, ha ah lol.
While we're at it do you have a jig in mind that i could mke in order to create a 2" dowel.
A router i do have

[IanW]

While we're at it do you have a jig in mind that i could mke in order to create a 2" dowel.
A router i do have

Yep - it's called a lathe.

If you don't have a lathe, you will have to be a bit more inventive. You could make a fairly simple jig to round up a roughed-out blank with a box and a router, but I don't see why you couldn't make the blank for your screw with hand tools - rasp, spokeshave, etc. It doesn't have to be perfect. I aim for a loose fit with wood as dry as it's likely to be in the annual cycle - at the end of the dry part of the year (which depends on whether you are a southerner or northerner, of course). I turn a dry blank to about 1/16" undersize, as I've found by long experience that that seems to work best. Many years ago, when I first tried threading wood, I had a very cranky old lathe, & no turning skills at all, so my first few blanks were really rough, but most of them are still in regular use, & it's hard to tell looking at them that they started out less than perfect.
The boss could be left octagonal (you will need a boss of some sort to give a shoulder & a place to drill the hole for the handle). I also turn a groove at the boss end for a 'garter' which takes a thin piece of wood to capture the screw when winding back. I posted a pic of how mine look on the 'wood threads' topic you started...
Cheers,

[Sturdee]

Wouldn't you like to be able to walk into that shop now? You would need a wheelbarrow to take home your purchases.

Colin.

Actually no. I'm glad that those kind of stores bit the dust with the advent of Bunnings.

I can still remember them, trying to charge me different prices depending on whether I wore workclothes or popped in during a lunch break in a suit, higher prices on Saturday morning then during the week but if I sent my wife to get it during the week he would try to charge her even more.

Closed on the dot at 12 noon on Saturday. Stock range limited and you had to know the name of the item else they would look at you as if you were an alien.

Give me Bunnings any time, open all hours and the same price to all, not what the salesman think the customer will pay.

Thank goodness those kind of stores are a thing of the past.


Peter.

[Woodwould]

Blimey! [best Yorkshire accent] When I were a lad, local 'ardware shop were greatest thing-g in ma life! T'man in brown coat used to put stuff aside fer me an' smuggle it out at employee's prices for me.
An' when I were grew up, that man's son worked in't shop and alus gave me good discounts and were ever so 'elpful when I 'adn't a bloody clue what I were after! Long live t'brown coats an' dem ol' 'ardware shops!