I wouldn't bother making one, they're readily available and not very expensive. Don't forget that right-hand ones have a left-handed thread. **LINK**

Yes you can do it. And without a taper turning attachment. This maestro from Indonesia shows how at about the 5:20 mark.

Edited By Hopper on 22/02/2022 10:51:10

Clockmakers have been cutting fusees for many years by removing the leadscrew from the cross slide, enguaging the screw cutting feed and applying pressure to the cross slide by hand in order to produce the groove for the clock line. I've done a few and have never produced a scrapper.

regards Martin

Yes, I imagine a few "practice" pieces would be in order.

I would say the trick is to start at the large end and screwcut toward the small end, as he does in the video. That way if you hesitate, the tool simply goes off into empty space and you can go back and start again, no worries. But trying to do it the other way, starting at the small end, would mean any hesitation on the cross slide would result in a major dig in of biblical proportions!

I can remember at the firm I trained at there was a polishing and plating shop, the tapered ends for the polishing machines were re threaded regularly when they wore. I never tried it ,the job was left to one of the old hands, a superb craftsman, he rethreaded them by manipulating the cross slide with the leadscrew engaged, I'm sure that he did as Hopper suggests started at the large end.

The polishing machines were very scary , with something like 3hp motors,I used to sneak in and use them to polish bits of motorcycle until I managed to fire a primary chaincase across the shop as it was caught by the wheel. another telling off and banishment from the polishing shop!

Dave

Looking back I do wonder how we survived, letting 16 year old idiots loose on powerful barely guarded machinery, I don't remember many people wearing safety glasses unless grinding, and then not many. The plating shop resembled something out of a Hammer horror film, foul smelling vats of who knows what bubbling menacingly. As for the heat treatment shop I was told " careful with this it's cyanide, the antidote is up there but it's worse than the cyanide!" Basil the chap in charge used to sit near the tratment ovens to eat his sandwiches in the winter months. All this at a firm that boasted of being state of the art and at the forefront of Harold Wilsons white heat of technology.

Very handy for motorcycle mad teenagers though, I had a very shiny Triton, not sure how I survived that either.

Happy Days

Dave

Edited By Dave Wootton on 22/02/2022 13:46:10

Edited By Dave Wootton on 22/02/2022 13:48:15

Haven't done this, but if I had to do it I think I would try it by setting over the tailstock to cut the taper *and* the thread. Does that not work?

I don't use a tail for my buffing wheel. I just have a straight shank arbor that passes through the hole in the mop with a large washer either side. It runs nicely and doesn't vibrate as much as when I used the tail.

If you're only planning to use one mop most of the time it's an easy option.

Drill and tapped one for a friend recently. I would not bother to try and make one, even though I have a taper turning attachment. At about £10 from the polishing shop I seem to think. It is vital that it is true to the axis of the machine it is being used on ! If you have a screw on chuck be careful running a lathe in reverse. Noel.

I know that this sounds like a bodge but would it be possible to do the following.

Turn a taper.

Wind a copper wire around the taper, using a very thin wire between to keep equal spacing.once a pitch has been established

Solder the wire in place

Using a tool like a wood turners scraper with a "V" point ground in it just run it along the resulting grooves to form Vs

Or perhaps do the same with a triangular file

The thread does not have to be particularly accurate to carry the pad & just needs some form of LH screw.

Would that work. Or is it a rubbish idea?

Edited By Sam Longley 1 on 22/02/2022 18:36:17

For Five quid I wouldn’t bother.

**LINK**