Thread tap follower

Hi All, here's a simple thread tap follower I recently made.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ROAnkLmsrgo

Cheers

Rob

I really like your thread tap follower and can see all kinds of use for it. How would I obtain a set of plans for its construction since I am a beginner?
Ron Butler
rbutlerr@charter.net
Central Point, OR, USA

Quote:

Originally Posted by rbutlerr

I really like your thread tap follower and can see all kinds of use for it. How would I obtain a set of plans for its construction since I am a beginner?
Ron Butler
rbutlerr@charter.net
Central Point, OR, USA

Hi Ron,

There are no plans for it as it was made on the fly using what scrap steel I had to hand.

I will take a few measurements and do a schematic. Then email it to your address shown above.

Could take a few days.

Cheers

Rob

Hi Ron,

Picture attached should get you there.

Attachment 40145

All measurements are in Millimetres.

Cheers

Rob

Quote:

Originally Posted by rbutlerr

I really like your thread tap follower and can see all kinds of use for it. How would I obtain a set of plans for its construction since I am a beginner?
Ron Butler
rbutlerr@charter.net
Central Point, OR, USA

Ron, for future reference, you can take a screen shot of something on most computers. Get one with the hand in it, if possible, and all the pieces you can, also if possible. Then look at your own hand, and guesstimate the width of a finger or thumb, and sketch in dimensions from whatever it was you used to help you scale the drawing you make. He tells you in the video that he used 20mm stock, cut down to 19mm. That's pretty close to 3/4", my thumbs are around 7/8", though I guesstimated 3/4" myself. Then see what you have in your junk box. You do have a junk box, right? ;) Even if there is only one piece in it, you need a junk box. I pick up random hardware wherever I find it. Buy material when I have to, and save all the scraps. After a while, you'll find you can do all sorts of things.

Rob drilled and then bored the hole in the tool. You could probably get away with just drilling it, with a drill bit that was about the right size. You could even use the broken off stub of a drill to make the pointed plunger. Or parts of a couple of them, soldered, brazed or welded, or glued/loctited together. There are LOTS of ways to do things like this. Even if all you have are hand tools, you can make things like this. And make or buy or adapt tools, as your means allow. You can use a grade 8 bolt, or the metric 12.9 bolt as stock for things like this, too. They are of a hardened alloy steel, can be annealed to make them softer for cutting and shaping, and then re-heat treated to make them hard again, if you can't cut them in the original state. You can buy or make drill bits, and even a drill, if necessary. You can also buy, or make, files, hammers, chisels, saw frames and blades, hand and machine tools. Read, watch youtube videos, and comb through this website to get a whole bunch of ideas!

If you have tools you can easily make more tools. I noticed that you were interested in the DRO on another maker's lathe. If you're lathe equipped, even with no other machine tool, you can do a LOT of stuff on the lathe. They can be, at need, a drill press, horizontal boring mill, light milling machine, spring and spool winder, and many other things. There are a bunch of metalworking groups at group.io, and there are both general interest, and machine specific groups. You could actually learn a lot about using any kind of lathe, from any group that has info on any kind of lathe, as they all do the same basic things. Personally, I have 4 different lathes now. And there are groups for each of them. 7x mini-lathes, Atlas-Craftsman lathes, South Bend lathes, and Smithy 3-in-1 machines. You can get info on a tailstock DRO that would enable to you design your own, if your lathe is unique, but they're mostly very similar to one another.

You can also get books. Paper or Electronic. There are two books of projects for lathes that I really like. One is the South Bend Machine Shop Projects book: https://archive.org/details/machines...bendlatheworks This is an older edition that is now in the public domain. The other is Roy Knight's Machine Shop Projects. https://www.amazon.com/Machine-proje.../dp/B0007E6IT6 That one is getting harder to find. Somebody has a copy listed at Amazon for only $1060, and change, plus shipping. I got mine for about $20. Find one of those books (I know which one I'd start with) and make some of the projects. You'll learn to make stuff, and read drawings, and eventually, how things go together. I first saw the second book in my high school machine shop class, about 48 years ago. You can buy paper copies of the SB book on amazon for a reasonable price, and once in a while the Knight books shows up there, too. That's how I got mine, as well. They both cover many of the same things. In my HS class, I made a small hammer, and a tap wrench. Used a lathe and shaper. Coincidentally, my machine shop started with a lathe and milling machine in pieces, until I could find a shaper. Took me 38 years from the HS class to get the lathe, and a few more for the shaper. Things have been kind of snowballing since. In 2015 I started another class. I've been nearly done with it for over a year and half or so. I know a lot more than I did in 2015. So you might also look for a class in your area. If you can find one. They aren't always easy to find.

HTH!

Bill

Thanks xynudu! We've added your Thread Tap Follower to our Tapping and Threading category,
as well as to your builder page: xynudu's Homemade Tools. Your receipt:

<div id="blocks"> <div class="block b1 pngfix"> <div class="bimg"> <div> <a href="https://www.homemadetools.net/homemade-thread-tap-follower"> <img src="/uploads/249927/homemade-thread-tap-follower.jpeg"/> </a> </div> </div> <div class="head pngfix"></div> <div class="left pngfix"></div> <div class="right pngfix"></div> <div class="blockover b1 pngfix"> <div class="title"> <a href="https://www.homemadetools.net/homemade-thread-tap-follower">Thread Tap Follower</a> <span> by <a href="https://www.homemadetools.net/builder/xynudu">xynudu</a></span> </div> <div class="tags">tags: <a href='https://www.homemadetools.net/tag/tapping'>tapping</a> </div> </div> </div> </div>