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Found a 1950s pipe threader at a garage sale for $5, guy said it was junk
He told me the dies were shot, but I spent 20 minutes sharpening them with a file and now it cuts clean threads. Anyone ever rehab old threading tools like this?
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aaron7083mo ago
Tbh sharpening old dies is a lost art. Grandpa taught me that trick with a fine file, just gotta follow the original bevel angle. You can get years more life out of a set that way. I've done it on a few old Rigid dies from the 60s, and they cut better than the cheap Chinese replacements youd buy today. Keep a little cutting oil on there and those sharpened dies will outlast the next fifty years of occasional use.
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terryb113mo ago
Sharpening dies is one of those things that sounds harder than it is. @aaron708 mentioned Rigid stuff from the 60s - I've got a set of those and they're surprisingly forgiving with a file if you don't get too aggressive. Did you have to touch up the leading edge at all, or just follow the factory grind all the way through? I've found the first few threads are usually the roughest after a sharpen, so I'm curious if you had to re-cut any of the starting taper on that old threader.
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