Home Made Die Holder

[Robert LaLonde]

I am sure one or two of you guys have made one or more of these for holding dies straight on your lathe. Basically a tube with one end setup to hold a threading die in place. The other end slides over a bar which can be clamped in a drill chuck or in my case has its own Morse Taper to fit the tail stock. Well, over the weekend I had to make a little adapter, and I found I had to do the die threading on the bigger lathe. The tiny little MT2 taper would just rattle around in the MT4 tailstock on that one. I looked for a suitable piece of rod to just clamp in the drill chuck, and again I didn't have anything unless I wanted to waste a much larger piece of stock. Then it dawned on me. It doesn't need a rod to slide on. It just needs to start straight. That's the whole point of making one of these to begin with. A live center in the tail stock. Tail stock loose on the bed, and the butt of my hand up against the back of it while I used a tommy bar to start the thread. Piece of cake, and really not much harder than using a guide rod.

Net result? Just as good if not better since a center is guaranteed to keep the back of the holder centered while you start the threading die on the stock.