Video: Adjust and Use a Woodthreading Set

Threading and tapping wood is fairly easy work, once you get your thread box set up.

When I started here at the magazine in 1996, we had a bunch of threading kits sitting on a shelf. Like the handplanes next to them, they looked great in the background for photographs, but they didn't see much work.

I fooled around with our sets a bit and found that the cutters were dull and knocked out of alignment (a quick trip to the concrete floor can do that). So I fussed with the tools until they worked to my satisfaction.

Now that you can get woodthreading kits for sizes up to 1-1/2" (check Woodcraft and Highland Hardware) for less than $45, you might consider trying a set to make some handscrews, a dedicated twin-screw vise or perhaps a device to threaten unruly neighborhood children with (imagine something with a hole for putting an appendage into, and let your brain do the rest).

To show you how easy it is, I took a new wood threading kit out of the bag this morning and set it up while Megan Fitzpatrick shot this video. Like with any hand tool, the trick is putting the cutter in the right place.

After we shot the video, I finished making a second double-screw vise (shown below). Total elapsed construction time: one hour.

— Christopher Schwarz

Other Workshop-specific Resources You Might Enjoy

• Michael Dunbar shows how to make wooden handscrews using a thread box and tap in the February 2007 issue of Popular Woodworking.

• Download free plans for a traditional sawbench from Woodworking Magazine.

• "Projects for Your Shop" (Taunton) by Matthew Teague.

Take a look at this article on Ezine Articles about wood lathe tools.