> I am very pleased to report that my first ivory ferrule came out as close to perfect as I could ask for. It started as a Mueller blank,center drilled on both ends. I used a #2 center drill,and touched off on the original hole,there was so little difference I could barely tell it. I used a fresh 1/16 carbide drill bit and went all the way thru nice and slow,and it even came thru on the other end perfectly centered,surprising considering the tailstock on my little Enco 7 x 10 is kinda cheesy. I moved up a bit and drilled to .702 deep with a 15/64 bit,freshly sharpened. I used a jewelers loupe and a small LED fishing light and looked down in the hole. The 118 degree point on the drills left a peaked "floor" at the bottom of the hole,which I overanalyzed,concluding this might leave a thin spot in the cap,considering I have to cut the centerdrill hole out of the end. I corrected this by running a 1/4 3 flute center cutting end mill into the hole,to a depth of .745. I knew from school and TRYING to memorize the Machinist's Handbook that the correct size drill for 5/16-18 threads is an F drill,which mikes out at .257. Since I was already at .250,and wanting to achieve a fairly snug fit,I left the hole as is,and used an H3 plug tap,chucked up in the tailstock,and turned the lathe on. I moved the tap in close,and left myself room to back out clear,since the travel on my tailstock is rather short. I turned the lathe on,sped it up a little,then turned it off and carefully gouged in to start the tap straight. I turned the chuck by hand,and backed out a few times to help clear chips and keep it cool. Once I got all the way down,I went back in with a H3 bottoming tap. At this point,I smiled,because I was careful and didn't ruin the only ivory ferrule I had on hand. The ferrule on the shaft was a fully threaded LBP,with the help of a heat gun and Knipex adjustable pliers,came off easily after about 30 seconds of heat. I miked the shaft twice,at 90 degree angles,coming up with .513 both ways. I took the new ferrule and screwed it down on my lathe pin and indicated it,and took it down to .516,and sanded with 220 to .510. I then stepped back for a minute,and mapped out the next few steps,since this was a new frontier for me. The tenon on the shafts was a little over an inch long,so I cut it to length using a very thin parting tool. The base of the tenon had very light threads,and a slight bulge,I cleaned this up with a diamond grit nail file. The thread fit was quite a bit looser than I anticipated,my conclusion was the tenon was a little undersized,and the tap I used is only .001-.0015 bigger than an H2. I screwed it onto the shaft,and noticed it took a little patience to get it lined up with the same overhang all the way around,possibly due to the tenon being not quite true. The ferrule also did not screw down totally snug due to the smaller than ideal tenon,which confirmed my suspicions by miking at .305. This also may have been caused by running the tap in and out several times to make sure the threads were clean. I faced the shoulder,and faced the open end of the ferrule,using a 60 degree countersink to deburr the threaded end,and take the less than perfect 90 degree angle at the bottom of the tenon out of play. I mixed up some fresh Devcon 5 Minute epoxy up,and lined it up as good as I could,and used the live center to clamp in place. After a 3 hour wait,which was probably overkill,I applyed the tip and went about matching the wood up with the ivory. I used a one inch wide strip of 220,wrapped around a smooth mill file. All it took was 5-6 swipes with the paper,and I felt no transition at all,so I cleaned,sealed and waxed the shaft like normal,and other than a slight glue line,it looked like it was installed by the cuemaker himself. I miked the shaft after all the sanding,the difference was only .005,with absolutely no dirt left in the pores at all. Total working time was about 2 hours,which is probably working at a snails pace for several here. I did this job as a personal skill challenge,at no charge for labor,the customer/best friend supplied the blank. Any better methods to be offered,other than buying pre-threaded blanks and a bigger machine? Tommy D.
You can have a tenon cut and threaded in under a minute with those things. Another thing I like about them, is that they really dont remove much from the tenon, leaving it pretty strong. I have experimented with using a trim router to cut threads, but it takes more wood away, possibly weakening the tenon.
