Threading Jig for Die / Die Holder

thingiverse

I had to tap a 10mm rod for my toolbox robot. It's tough to align the die by hand, so I created this jig to fit my Harbor Freight Tap & Die set perfectly. I was inspired by Deemoss's Threading Die Guide, but I didn't really use any of it. His seemed a bit complex to me, but I immediately discovered a problem with mine - it's easy to push the holder/guide off of the die! Deemoss solves that by having a back cover - I should have thought of that. It worked okay for the eight ends I had to tap though. I got really paranoid when I designed this. It was obvious that the die blank didn't fit exactly centered in its holder. So, I made it slightly offset from the center so that the true center of the die would be closer to center on the rod. My first threads may still have been a little wobbly, but I got better (I haven't done this before). It's starting to crack after eight ends, and, as I mentioned, you have to be careful not to push it off, thus defeating the alignment purpose of it, but it worked great for my needs. While I was at it, I printed a couple rings to act as a guide for the hacksaw while I chopped my steel rod in half on the miter box. That worked great, though on the last couple it started slipping. I've included that for fun. Full disclosure: Gearbest gave me the CR-10 that I printed this with, so I feel sort of obligated to put it through its paces.