Guys I have 500 1/4 inch shafts I need to put 1/4 20 thread one end, only about 6 threads. My problem is clamping the shaft without dinging it up, they are cosmetic parts. Can anyone reccomend the easy and fastest way to do this?
Thanks Tom
"Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what is for lunch. Liberty is a well armed lamb protesting the vote."
In a lathe with a collet & die holder in the tailstock.
Thanks!
"Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what is for lunch. Liberty is a well armed lamb protesting the vote."
5c collet in your lathe with a die chaser. You might even get away with one of the brass 5C collets
Gunner
"At the core of liberalism is the spoiled child - miserable, as all spoiled children are, unsatisfied, demanding, ill-disciplined, despotic and useless. Liberalism is a philosphy of sniveling brats." -- P.J. O'Rourke
In a mill with soft jaws and use a die in a tapping head. It does come down to what tools are available and, to some extent, the length of the shafts. If they are rather long, running them in and out of a collet and clearing tooling on a lathe can be a chore after a while. If you have a CNC mill available you could do several in one setup with tapping head or helical interpolation. Even a manual mill one part at a time seems like a lighter work load. An air clamp would cut down on operator fatigue and time spent. Think about going through the motions
500 times, what tools do you have and what method is less physical work?michael
Tom,as other people say use a collet chuck and thread with a diehead.If you put an internal stop in the diehead you do not have to position the rod in the collet just grip it at any length and pull diehead on.We do thousands of 10mm rods this way and apart from a thread rolling machine nothing can touch the cycle time. Regards,Mark.
The best way for this is to run the parts in a lathe, with a geometric die head in the tailstock. You could do these about a minute apiece that way.
Jim
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No lathe and no Mill. ;o) I may just have a shop do it. What could I expect to pay? Im really not willing to go more than 25 cents each.
"Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what is for lunch. Liberty is a well armed lamb protesting the vote."
Drill press? A quarter each is rather low for a shop. At a $60 shop rate the production rate would be over 4 parts per minute. That is not allowing time for setup, packing/shipping, or billing. And you mentioned appearence, tough to be in a hurry and not get a few scratches with 500 pieces.
michael
I suspect your right. If needed them tomarrow I guess I could pay 50 or 75 cents each. I may just do a few a time as I need them, It would just be nice to have them all done at once.
"Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what is for lunch. Liberty is a well armed lamb protesting the vote."
You might check in to having the threads rolled. I watched a thread rolling demo once - it was *very* fast. Same way grade 8 cap screws are made. 5 seconds each (automatic part feeder) with no deburring and no extra finishing steps.
The shaft has to be sized to allow the threads to grow into the right diameter. Also, the material must be soft enough to allow the upset (obviously, cap screws are hardened after threading).
The Thomas Register likely lists manufacturers that could do it for you.
hth, StaticsJason
I would try GlobalSpec
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