Acme Threads

[majohnson]

Anyone have a way to cut some acme threads on wood doweling, I have a PRS Standard. I need internal and external threads but sizing is open to 1.5. I don't have a lathe, the rotery tables I have aren't powered. The stuff that Woodcraft and Belle aren't worth the cost, they just seem to crush and tear out the threads seem to have tear out. It's grandkids toys, so I can't have anything that might end up as splinters in their fingers.

[Brady Watson]

You don't have many options after ruling out the Beall threader and an indexer. The path of least resistance may be to try different species of woods that don't tear out with the Beall threader - if in fact we are talking about a genuine one & not a cheap knock off. It is the absolute cheapest & easiest way to do what you want to do. You may find plasticizing the wood with several heavy 'soakings' of shellac will aid in the thread cutting and reduction of tear out and splintering.

Otherwise, you can make yourself a crank-operated router-lathe as shown in Router Magic by William H. Hylton to create the threaded dowels. You can buy a piece of ACME all-thread from McMaster in whatever diameter you need & make yourself a tap from it by grinding appropriately.


-B