finkdigital
Junior Member
Hi all, I'm new to the forum but have done quite a bit of research on here in the past couple weeks and haven't found anything at all on topic. I'm sure a bunch of you guys have tried making your own lugs so maybe someone can help. I'm making my own lugs, mainly because I'm enjoying learning how to work on a lathe and because I want a design I can call my own.
It's not necessarily a novel functional idea... just slightly different looking. I'm using 3/8" aluminum round dowels and making a variation on a tube lug. Creating a pattern in the middle of the dowel is easy enough on the lathe... where I'm having trouble is tapping/internal threading of the dowel. If you think of it like a tube lug, that's what I have to do... get a 12-24 thread on the top and bottom of the dowel. I've had no problem getting a straight pilot hole using the lathe, but when I used a 12-24 tap, I couldn't get it to tap properly and the tension rod wouldn't screw in more than a few turns before getting blocked.
Anyone have any advice on this? What kind of tap to use? Power tapping vs. hand tapping? Fluid? % of thread depth? Anything would help. Thanks!
It's not necessarily a novel functional idea... just slightly different looking. I'm using 3/8" aluminum round dowels and making a variation on a tube lug. Creating a pattern in the middle of the dowel is easy enough on the lathe... where I'm having trouble is tapping/internal threading of the dowel. If you think of it like a tube lug, that's what I have to do... get a 12-24 thread on the top and bottom of the dowel. I've had no problem getting a straight pilot hole using the lathe, but when I used a 12-24 tap, I couldn't get it to tap properly and the tension rod wouldn't screw in more than a few turns before getting blocked.
Anyone have any advice on this? What kind of tap to use? Power tapping vs. hand tapping? Fluid? % of thread depth? Anything would help. Thanks!