You're the one that is spouting ignorance, and encouraging ignorance, probably so you don't appear quite as stupid as you really are. There aren't any "black arts" to cutting threads, it's step by step by step, and very damn simple steps at that. I don't know where you are, or who you work for, but around here, you walk into a job shop and a week later they find out you can't cut threads, competently, you walk out and resume looking for a sweepers job. A busy jobber hasn't got time to hold your hand, either you know what you're supposed to, or go looking for work again. Better look for a drone position in a factory on production, they rarely single point anything.
To the original poster, don't let any of this discourage you in any way. For what you want to do, a tap is perfectly acceptable, and I don't object in the least. Your question was legitimate for a newbie, but the remarks from larson_tools were totally ridiculous and false. If you can see it to take the lathe course, do so. If nothing else, you will understand the process when you're done, and after seeing the possibilities that it opens to you, it may well be the one thing that pushes you into a lathe that does have threading capability.
Adding to your skills and advancing your knowledge is NEVER something "best left to the geeks and old germans." The geeks don't know how without their silicon brains, and the old germans f*ck up just as often as everyone else. Learn, Learn, learn, and pretty soon instead of asking questions, you'll be answering them.