Working with brass (tiny dies)

[FJ and G]

In one of the recent working with brass articles in GRR, Kevin showed how to make a tiny screw (bolt?) with a handheld die that you twist. This is exactly what I need, I thought, for a variety of projects. For instance, I'd like to make screws out of gauge 14 wire, of which I have a lot.

So I trucked over to Harbor Freight and picked up a set of taps and dies. When I got home, I discovered that the brass wire is too thin to cut grooves.

So I went to Radio Shack, Home Depot, Lowe's Ace Harbor and other places, and ALL of their dies are too large (as are the taps).

Then, I went to my MicroMark catelog (which magically appears from time to time in my mailbox). Their sets begin at about $86 and I can't tell by the description if their dies would thread a screw or what size screw.

In short, it is soooooooo expensive, and you need sooooooo many to make the screws in the size you need (or in the case of taps, in the size you need).

Your comments would be appreciated.

[pimanjc]

Some of the most popular Aristo screws are .3mm and .2mm.  Aristo sells a .2mm drill bit and tap set [for track screws] for about $7.  Ace Hwd. sells .3mm taps. "Big Tool Store" sells the small dyes.

JimC.

[rpc7271]

If your just looking for the die(s) try going to whalthers.com

[kstrong]

I used an 0-80 die, which you should be able to buy individually for around $12 or so. An 0-80 die will thread wire around .057" diameter--just far enough under 1/16" to where 1/16" won't work. A 1-72 die will work for 1/16" wire. I got mine from Micro Fasteners www.microfasteners.com

 

Later,

 

K