Thats pretty cool. Sounds like you had some good pours too. looking forward to that. cheers

The problem is synchronization and tap tooth cutting double tooth or running out of pitch .Since that is tapered tap how about feeding in to a bottom of the tap and then turn the power feed forward.Trick is to get power feed right so that it synchronizes with the tap pitch.I have never done it so i am clueless how to do it with tapered tap but i guess it has to do with one full rotation divided by number of teeth tap has ? i mean this method would work great if you could build a some kind of arbor that spins between centers and is driven by stepper motor and arduino ,then you could control synchronization and you could cut blanks right in the middle by adjusting height .Some contraption that would have E type without E having - in middle made of pipes that can slide up and down,two halfs that can be tighten by a all threaded rod -like a vice .Like one fixed live center on bottom and upper part has a er 32 collet (that holds mandrel with blank,it should lean on trust bearings and one ball bearing ,or conical roller bearing ) with shaft and timing belt pulley.It would turn lathe into a simple gear hobbing machine for fraction of price. You wouldnt be able to do helical gears and some other fancy gears but for simple gear cutting it would work. Just food for thoughts.

Ryan I believe the main issue is that the parallel flutes of the tap (of course has a space between them) that allows the blank to wonder when not engaged and then each time randomly re engages I have had great success with this method using a spiral type tap on non acme threads. Not sure though if spiral is even available with acne threads??

Learning by dicking around in the workshop is the best way to learn. Next best is looking at someone else dicking around in their wokshop and learning from successes and failures.