Re: wood threading kit
Michael Recchione
>I've had a fair amount of experience with these, with mixed success. Make sure the cutters are sharp, first, and you can also play with the depth adjustment. But the biggest factor contributing to success or failure with the dies I've found is the sizing and roundness of the dowels. If the dowel is too big, even if it fits through the hole, it will tear and shred no matter what you do. If you're buying dowels (it doesn't sound like you are), the best I've found were from Lee Valley.
The moisture content when you thread them is also pretty critical - they're only actually round at one specific moisture content (whatever that was when they were made), and at any other moisture content they're egg shaped in cross-section. That argues for making and threading them at the same time, before they've had time to deform. I haven't worked at developing the skill to turn long perfect dowels on a wood lathe, and don't have a machine lathe, so I either go for short runs of threads or use the LV dowels. I haven't tried the LV dowel making gizmos - maybe they do a good job. But the price of getting the two most common (for me) sizes covered (1" and 3/4") was just too high to justify for something I don't do a whole lot of.
All the stuff about oil soaks, oil coatings, etc. I've found to be boloney - YMMV. If the stuff is going to shred, my experience is that oil won't help.
Overall, the most critical factor is the diameter. If you can't get it dead-on, a little too small is better than a little too big.
HTH,
- Mike
