Rich the article was well written just very technical and a few concepts I am not grasping (not that I can think of any one thing right now). This must be a relatively difficult procedure for most of us laymen judging from the responses to the related threads. It wasnt as bad as I built it up to be. I am having fun playing with it now. I did get a 1/4-20 nut and threaded it onto a thread I cut today and it fit better than the bolt I copied.

Thanks John, unfortunately, all considered, threading is rather technical because it's governed by so many standards
and a rather complex cnc operation. It's when you have problems threading that undestanding of all the info
becomes even more important.
RICH

Rich, Actually I want to thank you for the effort to explain the threading concept and Peter Homann's DC-04 for making it work for a very reasonable price. I have a very limited math background (high school) and I didnt see the associations at the time. You know the saying "if I knew then what I know now"? Well the girls would have still been irresistable! It is good for the mind to keep learning. I cant imagine the frustration before forums like this and having to use the Dewey Decimal System to find a book that might have some info or not. This place is a god send. Even though I still get frustrated in the middle of the night when no one responds it actually makes me read the directions over and over and over. Eventually I get it. THANKS TO ALL OF YOU! Dont think for a minute this means I have acheived anything. Tomorrow I will babbling about something else, probably a bigger lathe and mill! I threaded a bolt at 500 rpm this afternoon. 1/4-20 that had a feedrate of 25 ipm pretty funny to watch on a Sherline. Another amazing thing was how much the carriage, toolpost and gibs were moving (mostly because I quickly threw the spindle from the mill to the lathe and didnt fix any previous issues yet) and they still cut an excellent thread. Cant wait to tighten it up and test again.

You can thank ART for taking care of users with punny lathes. A lot of time was spent to provide for spindle slow down and still end up with satisfactory threading. That work took 1 1/2 years to get it right. My first cnc lathe was a Sherline and still have it. You will find that that higher rpm is required to get the power out of the SHerline to minimize spindle slow down. Do a whole bunch of threading on it gradualy working your way up in size and pitch to gain experience. Use 6061 Al and not that gummy stuff and then try the equivilant in steel. Doing that will give you experience on what YOUR lathe system can and can't do. It's easy to thread to "the nut fits" it's another matter to attain a class fit.
Have Fun threading,
RICH

Rich, The Sherline is a great machine for people who want little stuff. I can see the results of some people who are patient and they are incredible. I can also see where I want a bigger more rigid lathe, not a huge lathe just bigger. But it is a great learning tool. I did read somewhere last night that the aluminum rod (Home Depot stock) was a gummy metal that doesnt machine well. So I will have to get some 6061 and some 12L14 because I hear as a steel it works very smoothly. I really get alot of my metals from a recycler near my house. With that identification becomes an issue. THANKS ART for your work on this and all you do.

Rich, I was just rereading this thread and realized you asked this question years ago and I never responded. The literature was not difficult to read, it was and is difficult to comprehend. Two different problems entirely, one for which you can not be responsible, me. ;-)

Fastest1,
The problem is that cnc threading relates to a PC, controller, software, standards, different techniques, hardware, mechanics,etc.
That's true of for all of CNC work. My generalized term for it all is the Lathe SYSTEM. Like everything in CNC it can quickly go from simple to complex. So the wirte-up was a touch on a topic that covered just some of the main components to do a basic thread.

One example of expanding on threading would be for tapered threads, NPT which includes different types and classes.
To cut one to meet / check for  tolerance could be a challenge.

A good example of something which gets complex quickly is gears.

So let not your heart be troubled as there a books written on the subject,
BTW, didn't even touch on the design end of threading.

I guess, in general, anyone who writes on a topic is challenged to keep it in perspective and write at some thought level which
may be comprehended.

I only write and can not read ( or spelll) so only the end user will be able to judge!

RICH