# Little Giant And Butterfield Work-rite Adjustable Dies



## bodaver32 (Sep 25, 2015)

Hello,

I recently purchased a Sheldon lathe with some tooling.  Included were about 13 different sized adjustable dies brand new in the little cardboard boxes made by Greenfield Little Giant and Butterfield Work-Rite.

I know very little about these dies, but what I gather is they need a collet an handle to be used.  On ebay I see all kinds of collets for the Little Giant dies, but none for the Butterfield.  Will the Butterfield dies work in the Little Giant collets?  Physically they don't appear much different is their shape.

Thanks.


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## kd4gij (Sep 25, 2015)

A picture of the dies would help. not quite sure what you have there.


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## David VanNorman (Sep 25, 2015)

What you have is for two different die holders They are good stuff . Msc has them listed.


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## JimDawson (Sep 25, 2015)

I guess if they will fit the holders properly they should work.


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## bodaver32 (Sep 25, 2015)

I get the size of the die holders are different, but does anyone know if the Butterfield dies will work with the Little Giant holders?

Thanks for helping.


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## george wilson (Sep 30, 2015)

I need a pair of 1/4"/ 20 thd. dies for a Greenfield set I have if you might have a pair for sale.


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## gi_984 (Sep 30, 2015)

George, I've bought multiple NOS Greenfield dies off of e-bay for my Little Giant sets.  They come up regularly at a decent price.


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## Chiptosser (Sep 30, 2015)

To answer your question,  Yes,  the Butterfield dies will fit in the greenfield holders.  
You will have to have the appropriate holder for the die.


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## silence dogood (Sep 30, 2015)

It was just last week that I bought a complete  #5 Little Giant tap and die set in its original wood case.   It looks to be hardly used at all.  It has the adjustable dies, and I had never before seen the likes of these.    I assume that these dies  were adjusted at the factory.  But if not, what procedure would one use to adjust each die since there are two cutters, opposite of each other?  Mark


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## awander (Oct 1, 2015)

george wilson said:


> I need a pair of 1/4"/ 20 thd. dies for a Greenfield set I have if you might have a pair for sale.



Hey George, what size dies do you need? There are quite a few different collet sizes, and die sizes as well. If you can give me a measurement, I can check to see if I hae an extra set of 1/4-20.


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## Wreck™Wreck (Oct 10, 2015)

silence dogood said:


> It was just last week that I bought a complete  #5 Little Giant tap and die set in its original wood case.   It looks to be hardly used at all.  It has the adjustable dies, and I had never before seen the likes of these.    I assume that these dies  were adjusted at the factory.  But if not, what procedure would one use to adjust each die since there are two cutters, opposite of each other?  Mark


They are adjustable, one way is to set them with a known good thread/gauge, cut a test piece and measure then adjust from there. Split round threading dies are also adjustable over a small range.
Please note that using a commercially available fastener as a gauge will only get you close as the root and crest profiles between a cutting die and a rolled thread may be somewhat different yet within the standards. Measure the Pitch Diameter over wires or with a Ring Gauge, this is the most important dimension then adjust as needed.


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## 4GSR (Oct 10, 2015)

Most of us H-M don't have plug gages or ring gages, so it only leaves us with a couple ways of adjusting dies to meet our needs.
The easiest is cut a thread on the part we are making and either do a measurement over wires or with a thread mic, if we have one, which I do, or just use a nut or mating part as a gage.  Yeah, it' not perfect, but it works.  We are not making aircraft parts here, at least most of us are not.


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## gi_984 (Oct 10, 2015)

How I use mine:
If it is a damaged thread, I adjust the dies to fit onto a good portion of the thread and use some cutting oil then recut.  If it is a new thread on a piece of stock I  tighten the dies up in increments and take multiple passes until I get the fit I need.  I find that most of the softer bolts etc tend to burr up if I try to cut the threads to full depth in one pass.


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## Bill C. (Oct 10, 2015)

I was in one shop that had a few thread test rings and Go/No-Go thread gages. We had adjustable die head for the turret lathes.  They are nice if you can find them in auction somewhere.  I usually used a pitch gage as a quick gage.  

There are three classes of threads, most of time we use a class two thread. Class one is a nice snug fit, a little resistance when screwing on a nut and Class three is sloppy or very loose when screwing on a nut.


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## Wreck™Wreck (Oct 10, 2015)

4gsr said:


> Most of us H-M don't have plug gages or ring gages, so it only leaves us with a couple ways of adjusting dies to meet our needs.
> The easiest is cut a thread on the part we are making and either do a measurement over wires or with a thread mic, if we have one, which I do, or just use a nut or mating part as a gage.  Yeah, it' not perfect, but it works.  We are not making aircraft parts here, at least most of us are not.



Granted, a thread micrometer is not required however, nor a ring gauge, anyone may measure a thread PD over wires with an inexpensive wire set and a micrometer and a good deal of patience and swearing.


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## silence dogood (Oct 10, 2015)

Thanks for the info, fellows,  it helps a lot.  I had to look up what is a ring gauge.   There is a site  "how to use thread gage- the gage store" that was real informative.  This tap and die set  is just too nice and I want to use it properly and make sure that it will be passed on(most likely my son, since he does machine work).   Mark


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## bodaver32 (Oct 15, 2015)

Chiptosser said:


> To answer your question,  Yes,  the Butterfield dies will fit in the greenfield holders.
> You will have to have the appropriate holder for the die.



Thanks for the reply.  I have since purchased the appropriate holders and handles and have pieced together a complete set up to 1" in both coarse and fine thread all from the NOS dies that were included on lathe purchase.  

Thanks again.


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