Tailstock Die Holder

I made this after doing the crookedest hand threading you have ever seen. I somehow managed to get an M8 thread cocked off at least 10°.

The die holder consists of three main parts. The ball handle screws into the die holder. This was made from junk yard stainless. Normally I hate turning stainless on FrankenSieg, as your hands are way to close to that stringy sharp swarf, but it was the only scrap I had of the right size.

It has a 25mm bore, 10mm deep for the dies, and the rest is bored 16mm. I used the screws from my handle die wrench. The holes were drilled by using the four jaw chuck and a bit of scrap as a stop, and drilling with a Black and Decker hand drill mounted square on the cross slide.

The third piece is C45 (ANSI 1045 ?) carbon steel. Turned to a short #2 morse, with a 15mm sliding fit on the shaft where the die holder mounts, and a 10.5mm bore as far through it I could go, to allow cutting longer threads.

This accessory works very well, assuring nice straight threads.