Just seeing this and its fascinating, and the results it produces are wonderful. My guess on your pitch generation is that you have an adjustable angled ramp/guide that, effectively acts as a divisor ?... I'm going to see if you published another video now to see if I'm close with my guess!

The traditional way is to hold a piece of scrap in the vise and tap 2 holes in it. The program uses the tapped hole as a datum as it has just been drilled and tapped. The important thing to remember is to drill your parts before making the fixture. Simply bolt the parts and run the program, no clocking up parallel or finding two datums For repeat parts just bolt them on and they are already to go. All toolmakers and millers will have a piece of scrap full of previous tapped holes for this purpose. A tenon on the bottom of the standoff would keep them aligned with the tee slots.

Your challenge is to identify the market and reach it effectively. It is far from trivial. One way to achieve this is to show people various things that can be done with your invention that are difficult or even impossible. In general people do not have much imagination: you have to explain and describe again and again. One example that comes to mind is the pantorouter first developed by Mathias Wandel. He made a number of videos showing how to use it.

We regularly use inverted tools on the CNC lathe. The machine does not have sufficient X travel over center to calibrate against an X zero reference surface for larger boring bars.

Machining a groove in your (hardened) jaws is overly complicated. i found a better way, thanks you a YT comment, credits where credits are due. I made a blog post on the topic. Sharing on YT of URLs seem pretty much impossible, so if you are interested please drop me a line.

Hi Cliff, Very nice work and design. My thoughts lead me to compare with the size and cost of a auto tapping head which many serious manual machinist with multiple parts will fork out for. If your design could be smaller and easier to handle and setup on say smaller hobby machines with fixed heads and minimal table clearance, you may be on to something. Another thought is that of large earth moving machine repair in remote situations using a jig , like portable line boring and welding machines.

This is an amazing invention, one I am not likely to be able to build or afford to purchase but I can certainly appreciate the genius it takes to invent this. How do you adjust the TPI, the pitch adjustment scale you showed seems to only adjust the cutting angle if I understand it correctly.

Very impressive and interesting. Nice work sir

Hey Cliff, I wanted to check out other comments before I did. Again this is brilliant. I think that one thing people are overlooking is that this could free up time on other machines by threading better on a stand alone “threading machine”. Because this solves, imo, the biggest problem to come with threading…tool pressure! I think you should integrate a power supply with it…think big die grinder or even the way a rose machine has its. Now a shop would no longer need to tie up “machine time” on the threading portion of a part, prep it with them yes. Also almost anything I can think of that requires a follow rest…wouldn’t 😮. Also for what this is…an assortment of multi-cutter discs would be perfect, like for different gearing cutters. With these it seems like even acme threads would be a breeze. Sure I’m forgetting to tell you some things because each time I watch one of your videos I think of more uses. Well done. You’ve inspired me to proceed with a couple of my inventions

Neat idea, very interesting . The adjustment of pitch Reminds me a lot about Spiral grinding attachments for t&c grinders, but many of them cant do very small pitches like yours. My first idea would be not to use it on a mill, but on a surface or t&c grinder to implement threadgrinding. For milling machines, I think its 70 years to late, having this integrated right into a toolroom mill would have been extremely powerful. Today that need is unfortunately eaten up by cnc mills. Will watch the other videos for sure 😃

What is the realistic profit margin that would go in your pocket if you had to hire a company to produce them for you? Hundred Dollars? Couple hundred Dollars? I think good plans and/or partial parts kits (not everything piece of metal needed, maybe just the more difficult pieces, like the graduated dial around the chuck etc) would easily sell for that. Netting you the same profit without all the hassle. Plan's would have to be drawn up no matter who produced it. Heck I bet you could get someone to draw it for free on trade that they obviously get the drawings free.

Anyone telling you hobbyists are going to spend $1000-$3000 on an attachment is a delusional boomer and out of their mind. Have they seen the state of the economy?

Hi Cliff. Been following along since you started with the probes. You are a clever fellow mate 👍👍 My take on this machine, is that it’s real market would be developing countries ( say, India). I’ve seen some incredible work being done on KZfaq, in the most basic of workshops. These countries are highly unlikely to be getting widespread CNC into their ‘cottage’ industries… but a ‘production’ machine like yours would fit nicely into a basic manual machine shop. Maybe get in touch with organisations (or Governments?) that want to expand manufacturing in third-world countries. Just a suggestion. Regards Robert (Sydney)

It seems to me that this is too much of a niche device to get any economy of volume for pricing, anyone that would need one of these will already have a lathe that will do the threading. The extra quality produced wouldn't justify much cost for most.

I had to cut a metric thread on an imperial lead screw once to make a custom puller for rotor on a antique Italian motorcycle once. I didn't have the proper conversion gears. I borrowed a trick from Ivan Law's book 'Gears & gear cutting'. He talked about using continuous fractions where you can calculate a not precise, but very close thread with the change gears at hand. It worked beautiful. The little inacuracy of 0.01mm every so often doesn't look like a big of a deal. I was wondering if that occasional 0.01mm blipp is linear & if so why? I wouldn't worry. Just a thought. Nice job.

I think its a very impressive unit and would question the comment you quoted about it not having much of a market at 1K. Lots of amateur machinist are quite happy to spend large amounts on their hobby ( I know three with Deckel mills). And would have thought a well made hardened unit at @ 2-3K (AU) would have a healthy market. Why not determine a price that gives you a worthwhile profit and see how many people would be willing to place a deposit? Or perhaps selling the IP to someone like Vertex .

I think longevity is important. When someone buys a used one 20 years from now it should still function. I understand intellectual protection, as I am also an inventor of sorts. Still, I am anxious to see how this is implemented. It's hard to give critical assessments without that knowledge. I feel that's the part which could make or break this product.

How heavy is it? How much would you roughly anticipate its cost? I would prefer a smaller unit (as a home shop machinist) and cost < 1000usd I also agree with your other commenters saying that you should keep the IP protected instead of open sourcing it right now. You deserve to make a profit out of this. Another comment I will make is that the more you use it, the more accurate it will get - in terms of periodic error. The nut and lead screw will lap each other until they get very smooth. Of course, the backlash will increase but accuracy of the mechanism itself will improve. This may not be the case with hardened materials as they won’t be easy to lap.

I don´t see how it can make economic sense in our current production world (maybe some nieche prototyping situation). I also don´t see how the pitch generating mechanism is revolutionary (even if it was so simple to not add any cost at all, the rest of the mechanism is already expensive if you want it to be build to the same accuracy as a decent lathe), sorry. It is still a cool idea, and i know the feeling if you chase a new idea and come to clash with reality. People writing they are interested and paying multiple hundred dollars are two very different things. Cheers

Is selling the plans an option ? The more I see this device the more I want to build one. I’m anticipating the cost to purchase one will be outside my home shops budget. It’s a wonderful prospect, and I’m looking forward to seeing it pop up in more applications. I’ve watched a lot of your content and I have a great amount of respect for you and your machining capabilities in general, not just on this project. Eagerly awaiting the next tidbits ! 🍻

What are the thread measurements like with a thread micrometer..?

Overall, I am net crazy about trying to hang that rather heavy unit on the edge of my table, and then having to swing the ram to cut a thread. Maybe it's not feasible for you, but it would be nice to have a 1:1 right angle and just set it on the table, or even throw it in your vise. Also I see limitations with length of thread vs. diameter of thread. At some point you will need a center to hold the end, and you will probably end up in a lathe. Just my 2 cents. I applaud you for your unique design, Good luck Cliff.

Greetings from the garden city. I could certainly use one of these. I would also value it at more than NZ$ 1000 per unit. I wonder if the design might be optimized for economic production? I also wonder if it might be scaled up and/or down? How would it work at half or quarter of the size? It seems like you have come up with an excellent core design that would lend itself to various adaptations. Have you thought of recruiting collaborators while legally protecting your IP investment?

You showed (6:20) the mechanism for setting the thread pitch according to scale, and during the show (10:00) you covered this mechanism, it seems to me that this scale has nothing to do with the actual thread pitch. To set the correct thread, it requires several attempts and corrections, which means it is problematic, perhaps apart from the locking mechanism on the scale behind using the counterscrew (6:20), it would be necessary to add a lead screw to the adjustment mechanism, which would enable precise setting.

Hello Cliff, I would like one of these thread cutting machines very much. What machine is turning the fly cutter? Would you show more of your set up please.

Kia Ora, Great video thank you for the education.

I'd like to know if you have a video on speeds and feeds in millimeters

Hi Cliff, I wonder if one can use your device for helical or spiral milling in addition to thread cutting. I was thinking your device might have a resemblance to the Deckel FP1 or FP2 helical milling attachment. I believe Aciera and Maho also had these attachments available for their universal tool room milling machines. Those devices were used for cutting mills, drills, taper shank mills, lead screws etc. I like your device, especially the thread precision and the ability to cut to the shoulder without an undercut. Depending on the price, this device could be very successful in the market. Can you cut internal threads?

As someone who machines original things, I totally get the frustration of no demand. Your design is definitely an improvement over dies. I almost never use dies unless it’s not very important. I have no idea about how it works, but I feel confident that you’ve done a good job at it. I’ve thought about using a rotary cutter on the lathe, but never tried.

Brilliant

You really don’t need much of a machine for the actual cutting…

This might kill me..

Very cool…I need to check out the rest of ur vids

This looks like a wonderful tool to have, very versatile, also like being able to do multiple processes in one setup. As a true beginner (60 y/o dipping his toe in the water) just getting started with my first Lathe and have only a drill press no Milling machine (yet), I vote continue on, by the time my skills and wallet could afford this it will be a reasonable price ;-).

I forgot to mention that years ago I screw cut the outside of the spindle on my Pacific mill with about the same method , Of course the outside of the spindle was hardened with 2 slots.....thank you for your answer

we used to thread mill the inserts for beer bottles molds , with a similar setup , ( with a master thread guide) , because of the 4:1 reduction in your attachment , You may use patterns that are 4 times coarse than the thread that you want to manufacture, with a set of internal gears to match the thread reduction , BUT ! you also show us that there is a linear scale for the metric/imperial threads , so maybe a sine bar in there as well .anyway excellent work!

Isn’t a probe and having the ability to use it on most cnc machines like 10x-20x the cost of a Haimer?

It is a beautiful piece of work 👍😀. And i love making threads on my lathe and take pride in making a beautiful thread. I can see the benefits of this machine and the quality of threads it's capable of making. The question you ask yourself in the video is if there is a use for a production version of this machine in today's industry. And i think you should ask yourself how many shops produce high quality threads around the world and how are they doing it now. And can this small percentage off shops see the benefit from your machine. Nobody with any related knowledge to accurate machining of threads doubts the capability of your machine. But the question is does it bring any benefits for them if they change from their current methods to your machine and how many of these shops are willing to do so. The only way to get the answer is for you to go actively to these shops and show them what you got . Also ( I don't know the exact English word) you should get your machine on these kinds of conventions where manufacturers come together and show their new machines for the industry. In my opinion there is a future for your machine , but it will be a small specialized market. Companies that produce accurate machines with accurate parts and threads would surely see the benefits of using your machines in my opinion. But it will take the necessary work and effort from you to get your machine noticed in this part of the industry 😀. Please keep making this great content and videos and share your ideas with us 👍😀 Sad to see people making comments that don't have any idea about making accurate threads and the basic concepts behind thread cutting.

It seems to me, that the device possesses the ability to produce a spiral around an external shaft. If you mounted something like a boring head where the chuck is mounted, if you installed a cutting spindle where the boring bar would normally be installed, you could make a device that could be mounted in the field, that is capable of milling threads in the field on any exposed thread in an assembly. I can imagine producing a threaded hole on a large piece of machinery, or a large exposed stud. A portable thread milling machine. I would recommend contacting Climax portable machine tools, or York portable machinery if you are looking for a possible buyer.

Somehow I managed to see your second video before this one lol. Now once again it’s brilliant! I haven’t put on my thinking cap on yet to figure out what’s under the hood. That’s the key to it all. The rest is very basic. I’m not so sure you will ever show it and I can appreciate that. I’d think with technology today the pitch’s could be driven by a variable pitch generator to advance the chuck. Again I’ve not spent anytime thinking on it. The only drawback to this is you need a horizontal mill to use it due to the size of the unit. This is a huge drawback in my mind. Most every shop has a vertical mill. Not knowing exactly what’s in there I’m wondering if you could use a bevel gear set to drive it. That way it could be shorter to use on a vertical. Just my 2.5 cents. Used to be 2 cents but now with inflation it’s 2.5 😂 Once again, brilliant young man! Several variables to the success. The target market place. Europe would be better than USA. The cost it would take to manufacture a given quantity. All the costs involved with insurance, marketing etc. personally even though it’s a great , no awesome idea if you can’t produce it at a cost a hobby type shop could afford I think you’d be heading for failure. Now one thought that might work is to sell plans to make it. Get a copyright instead of a patent. This is a tad tricky but can be done for far less. I think the DYI market would still be the best. Even if some manufacturer stole the idea once it’s available chances are they can’t make it cheap enough to compete with a DYI. Basically it will take someone with the ability to make something that. And that would be a someone who would need to use in the first place. Tools you need to make tools so to speak. Regardless of anything I wish you great success. You remind me of me lol.

4100 views, 45 comments and maybe 5 serious inquiries… I can appreciate your analytical approach to making sense of those numbers. But I have my doubts that KZfaq viewers are a quality market sample. Just guessing, but my gut tells me very few of your potential market are regular machine video viewers. Maybe there’s a viable market for your product, maybe not. But I’d hate to see you lose hope and give up with an assumption this audience can provide a good representative sample. Small shop owners, serious model engineers/hobbyists, prototyping and restoration specialists seem more likely markets than KZfaq viewers. Your “customers” shouldn’t need a deep education to understand its value. They should be knowledgeable and experienced enough to see it almost immediately. (I’m not one of them, BTW. I just aspire to be. 😀)

I do believe it’s quite a bit of genius. I’ve been a journeyman toolmaker since 1976. When I first started my own shop one production part I made I used a Geometric (brand name) die head in a turret . Very good threads and would cut to the required thread gauge very quickly. Then as years went by I had several CNC lathes and mills. I’ve cut single point threads all the time. However I do see the logic in your process. I would love to see what’s under the cover but understand if you don’t. I’ve invented quite a few things in my life and found utility patents to be way too expensive. A design patent is simply a waste of money. While I can certainly see the value in your product I still believe it would only be appealing to a certain amount of shops. I still think it’s brilliant however the only thing I don’t like is the size of it. To put the unit on a mill it will sit so high up on the table. Now if you have a power knee feed that’s not so bad but if not that’s a LOT of cranking. I do hope I can see the inside. Maybe not put it in a KZfaq video but perhaps it could be emailed to seriously interested ppl somehow. Heck if you do decide to put into production of any quantity I’d love to have the opportunity to quote you on components. My sons have bought my shop now but could do components at a very competitive price. Especially in lower volumes. Overall I love the video and hope we can further discuss this. Good job young grasshopper lol 👍🏼👍🏼

Cliff, after watching this video, I have some thoughts about a possible end user 🤔 My thoughts are to Not open up your design so easily for others to copy. I would prefer to see you trying to offer it in kit form. Especially good for those who like to play around in their home shops, garages etc I would offer it in kit form in stages of completion, right up to a full Thread Express, but not yet assembled or possible in different stages of completion to make it a little easier to assemble for those who may only be capable of basic assemble. The stages could be spread out to levels of competition. Leaving a purchaser to choose an appropriate kit that might suit their capabilities as far as completion of some of the parts that were not included in each individual kit. Leaving the possibility for someone to manufacture some of the parts themselves, or even include drawings of how the parts could be manufactured by a Machine shop. I understand their would be a fair amount of work initially needed. But other than some basic CAD drawings, which can be produced in a copy format via pdf after purchasing the kit. I feel this would not only be a good way to make use of time already invested in producing the Thread Express. It would also give people an opportunity to be involved in a real project that actually does something, not just sit on a window sill collecting dust ?? The kit, as mentioned, could be broken up into stages as to allow a cheaper price for a Thread Express that would require less or more work from the person buying the kit. You can produce separate items and make them available through your website that could be purchased later after buying a less detailed kit. Basically, you would be involved in producing the parts to assemble the Thread Express. But leave any detailed assembly for the purchaser. The finer details of levels of assembly can be decided as each kit is sold. I doubt you will be overrun with parts to manufacture. But it's a great way to get the Thread Express out into the market. Possibly think seriously about doing something like this. It would be up to individual people to decide what they want to buy.

Cliff you're a really nice guy which in my experience isn't too difficult to find in a fairly typical Kiwi. For that reason alone I would love to see something good to come of all the work you have put into to building and designing the Thread Express. But ??? Being a little more honest about it's practicability I would personally find it difficult to find an end user. It's a little to do with the design as much as finding a genuine customer base. As a kit, for someone to build who has more time than money, I could see a small amount of interest. Commercially ???? I personally wouldn't spend too much time trying to find a commercial market for the Thread Express ?? ( but I'm sure you already know that by now ) Most machine shop based operators don't want to think too much about how something works. It either works fairly easily without too much effort or they're not interested. I talk more about the smaller shops that usually have a small customer base and just want to be involved in the smaller jobs than the shops who have multiple employees on reasonable wages that need to be paid. The Thread Express is bordering on trying to reinvent the wheel. It does work as it is intended. But, does it replace what is currently available ?? From a prospective customers point of view. WHY buy a Thread Express ?? Does it do something that I can't do currently ? IF you can answer this question you might have a starting point of how to sell the Thread Express. I feel you're possibly too personally involved with the Thread Express to see it's value to an end user ?? Just some insight to my thoughts about a fairly typical small machine shop who could be your end user ?? Less and less of these shops are in operation now. IF you can find 1. They are in most cases fairly tight with their budgets and prefer to waste time on a job than spending money to buy the right tool. Scaling up from this fairly typical operator. Someone who has 1 or 2 possibly 3 employees. The mindset is to gain and grow the business. Most already have CNC capabilities or they are seriously looking at getting into CNC. This I feel is most of the reason Why you're finding it difficult to find an end user. You only need to watch KZfaq to see a guy in a garage with an okay setup that's producing parts on a budget CNC Machine and most of these guys have the mindset to follow the trend and get serious about CNC equipment beyond their current setup.

I say PRESS ON! When the light bulb goes on in the rest of the world, You were already there, and guess what.. Here it is available. I guess folks who like building from a kit might purchase one, but the Production capabilities are where this guy will prove worthwhile. I dig it.

Cheers. Cliff

Very coy!...... and typical of most inventors! At the risk of sticking my neck out I am prepared to speculate that in order to obtain the range of continuous adjustability you claim the internal mechanism is essentially, just a tilting slide with a telescoping link arm to the spindle. This broad principle IS NOT new. It has been used countless times, for example it is employed in the Soviet era StankoImport Ryazan IM63 manual centre-lathe for powered taper turning, itself a direct copy (circa 1946) of the even-earlier German Hasse & Wrede lathe (the Russians transported the entire captured production facility back to Russia at the end of WW2!) that employed the same principle. Essentially, it use a powered top-slide, swinging it over to a concise angle calculated by trigonometry yield the required taper angle. Granted, your particular application might be very uncommon, if not unique but the demands of mass-production means it will remain restricted to highly specialised custom machine-shops and home workshop enthusiasts. On the latter point I highly recommend that you contact Neil Wyatt, editor of "Model Engineer's Workshop" magazine with a view to writing an article describing it [ [email protected] ]. They pay for articles. You might also put a post up in the forum of the model engineer website. Hope this all helps.

Hello. Rarely comment, so here goes. I believe you answered your own question about the percieved lack of interest and engagement. Small shops cant and wont compete with companies making precision screws for lets say micrometers. Even in industry the bottom line has to be and is 'good enough'. I wont be paid more if I turn an ordered 2a thread to 3a spec. Your other potential customer base is hobbyists and tinkerers, and their pockets arent overflowing with money to burn either. If i am single employee in a small shop with lone machine but its a tooled up 9 axis cnc cutter grinder, am i still a small shop that would start doing better by purchasing your device? I also wish to contest a few claims youve made in light of small shop setting. No machinist ever made a precision screw with a die. You can threadmill on the lathe with a dremel in toolpost with helix angle correction. One can use a self opening thread chaser die head, or a thread rolling/whirling process. There are several diy self retracting threading tool vidjeos on here where no relief cut is needed. And if you go slow enough (which you will turning large diam threads) after five parts operator will be able to retract tool and disengage halfnut. It may be unfortunate that your invention is late to the mechanical metalworking party, Yet the mechanism could find use in some other application still. I do applaud your dedication and commitment to see the project thru this far. Thanks for sharing

Nice refinement w/ centerline positioning of indicator and square cross section link arms, to reduce adjustment issues. Easily adapted for miniaturizing for mini-mill, compared to problems fitting full size clamp. Thanks for the ideas.

This technology needs to be explored further. With proper tooling, can Acme nuts be produced? This is very interesting. If I had the time and money, of course I would build your system.