Modern Machine-Shop Practice Part 23

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 267.]

So far, however, we have only considered the wear tending to round off the sharp corners of the teeth, which wear is greater in proportion as the corners are sharp, and less as they are rounded or flattened, and we have to consider the wear as affecting the diameters of the male and female thread at their tops and bottoms respectively.

Now, since the tops of the tap teeth wear the most, the diameter of the thread decreases in depth, while, since the tops of the die teeth wear most, the depth of the thread in the die also decreases. The tops of the tap teeth cut the bottom of the thread in the nut and the tops of the die teeth cut the bottoms of the thread upon the bolt.

Let it be supposed then that the points of the teeth of a tap have worn off to a depth of the 1-2000th part of an inch, which they will by the time they become sufficiently dulled to require resharpening, and that the teeth of a die have become reduced by wear by the same amount, and the result will be the production of threads such as shown in Fig. 268, in which the diameter of the bolt is supposed to be an inch, and the proper thread depth 1-10th inch. Now, the diameter at the root of the thread on the bolt will be .802 inch in consequence of the wear, but the smallest diameter of the nut thread is .800 inch, and hence too small to admit the male or bolt thread. Again, the full diameter of the bolt thread is 1 inch, whereas the full diameter of the nut thread is but .998 inch, or, again, too small to admit the bolt thread. As a result, it is found in practice that any standard form of thread that makes no allowance for wear, cannot be rigidly adhered to, or if it is adhered to, the tap must be made when new above the standard diameter, causing the thread to be an easy fit, which fit will become closer as the thread-cutting tools wear, until finally it becomes too tight altogether. The fit, however, becomes too tight at the top and bottom, where it is not required, instead of at the sides, where it should occur. When this is the case, the nuts will soon wear loose because of their small amount of bearing area.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 268.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 269.]

It may be pointed out, however, that from the form in which the chasers or solid dies for bolt machines, and also that in which taps are made, the finishing points of the teeth are greatly relieved of cutting duty, as is shown in Figs. 269 and 270. In the die the first two or three threads are chamfered off, while in the tap the thread is tapered off for a length usually equal to about two or three times the diameter for taps to be used by hand, and six or seven times the diameter for taps to be used in a machine. The wear of the die is, therefore, more than that of the tap, because the amount of cutting duty to produce a given length of thread is obviously the same, whether the thread be an internal or an external one, and the die has less cutting edges to perform this duty than the tap has. The main part of the cutting is, it is true, in both cases borne by the beveled surfaces at the top of the chamfered teeth of the cutting tools, but the fact remains that the depth of the thread is finished by the extreme tops of the teeth, and these, therefore, must in time suffer from the consequent wear, while the bottoms of the teeth perform no cutting duty, providing that the hole in the one case and the bolt in the other are of just sufficient diameter to permit of a full thread being formed, as should be the case.

In threads cut by chasers the same thing occurs; thus in Fig. 271 is shown at A a chaser having full teeth, as it must have when a full thread is to pa.s.s up to a shoulder, as up to the head of a bolt. Here the first tooth takes the whole depth of the cut, but if from wear this point becomes rounded, the next tooth may remedy the defect. When, however, a chaser is to be used upon a thread that terminates in a stem of smaller diameter, as C in Fig. 271, then the chaser may have its teeth bevelled off, as is shown on B.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 270.]

The evils thus pointed out as attending the wear of screw-cutting tools for bolts and nuts, may be overcome by a slight variation in the form of the thread. Thus in Fig. 272, at A is shown a form of thread for the tools to cut internal threads, and at B a form of thread for dies to cut external threads. The sides of the thread are in both cases at the same angle, as say, 60. The depth of the thread, supposing the angle of the sides to meet in a point, is divided off into 11, or any number of equal divisions. For a tap one of these divisions is taken off, forming a flat top, while at the bottom two of these divisions are taken off, or if desirable, 1-1/2 divisions may be taken off, since the exact amount is not of primary importance. On the external thread cutting tool B, as say a solid die, two divisions are taken off at the largest diameter, and one at the smallest diameter, or, if any other proportion be selected for the tap, the same proportion may be selected for the die, so long as the least is taken off the largest diameter of the tap thread, and of the smallest diameter of the die thread.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 271.]

The diameter of the tap may still be standard to ring or collar gauge, as in the Franklin Inst.i.tute thread, the angle at the sides being simply carried in a less distance. In the die the largest diameter of the thread has a flat equal to that on the bottom of the tap, while the smallest diameter has a flat equal to that on the tops of the tap teeth, the width or thickness of the threads remaining the same as in the Franklin Inst.i.tute thread at each corresponding diameter in its depth.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 272.]

The effect is to give to the threads on the work a certain amount of clearance at the top and bottom of the thread, leaving the angles just the same as before, and insuring that the contact shall be at the sides, as shown in Fig. 273.

This form of thread retains the valuable features of the Franklin Inst.i.tute that it can be originated by any one, and that it can be formed with a single-toothed or single-pointed tool. Furthermore, the wear of the threading tools will not impair the diametral fit of the work, while the permissible limit of error in diameter will be increased.

By this means great accuracy in the diameters of the threads is rendered unnecessary, and the wear of the screw-cutting tools at their corners is rendered harmless, nor can any confusion occur, because the tools for external threads cannot be employed upon internal ones. The sides only of the thread will fit, and the whole contact and pressure of the fit will be on those sides only.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 273.]

This is an important advantage, because if the tops of the thread are from the wear of the dies and taps of too large or small diameter, respectively, the threads cannot fit on the sides. Thus, suppose a bolt thread to be loose at the sides, but to be 1-1000 of an inch larger in diameter than the nut thread, then it cannot be screwed home until that amount has been worn or forced off the thread diameter, or has been bruised down by contact with the nut thread, and it would apparently be a tight fit at the sides. Suppose a thread to have been cut in the lathe to the correct diameter at the bottom of the thread, the sides of the thread being at the correct angle, but let the diameter at the top of the thread (a Franklin Inst.i.tute thread is here referred to), be 1-1000 too large, then the nut cannot be forced on until that 1-1000 is removed by some means or other, unless the nut thread be deepened to correspond.

Now take this last bolt and turn the 1-1000 inch off, and it will fit, turn off another 1-1000 or 1-64 inch, and it will still fit, and the fit will remain so nearly the same with the 1-64 inch off that the difference can scarcely be found. Furthermore, with a nut of a fit requiring a given amount of force to screw it upon the bolt, the area of contact will be much greater when that contact is on the sides than when it is upon the tops and bottoms of the thread, while the contact will be in a direction better to serve as an abutment to the thrust or strain.

In very fine pitches of thread such as are used in the manufacture of watches, this plan of easing or keeping free the extremities of the thread is found to be essential, and there appears every probability that its adoption would obviate the necessity of using check nuts.

It has been observed that the threads upon tools alter in pitch from the hardening operation, and this is an objection to the employment of chasers cut from hobs.

Suppose, for instance, that a nut is produced having a thread of true and uniform pitch, then after hardening, the pitch may be no longer correct. The chasers cut from the hob will contain the error of pitch existing in the hob, and upon being hardened may have added to it errors of its own. If this chaser be used to produce a new hob, the latter will contain the errors in the chaser added to whatever error it may itself obtain in the hardening. The errors may not, it is true, all exist in one direction, and those of one hardening may affect or correct those caused by another hardening, but this is not necessarily the case, and it is therefore preferable to employ a form of thread that can be cut by a tool ground to correct shape after having been hardened, as is the case with the [V]-thread and the United States standard.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 274.]

It is obvious that in originating either the sharp [V] or the United States standard thread, the first requisite is to obtain a correct angle of 60, which has been done in a very ingenious manner by Mr. J. H.

Heyer for the Pratt and Whitney Company, the method being as follows.

Fig. 274 is a face and an end view of an equilateral triangle employed as a guide in making standard triangles, and constructed as follows:--Three bars, A, A, A, of steel were made parallel and of exactly equal dimensions. Holes X were then pierced central in the width of each bar and the same distance apart in each bar; the method of insuring accuracy in this respect being shown in Figs. 275 and 276, in which S represents the live spindle of a lathe with its face-plate on and a plug, C, fitted into the live centre hole. The end of this plug is turned cylindrically true, and upon it is closely fitted a bush, the plug obviously holding the bush true by its hole. A rectangular piece _e_ is provided with a slot closely fitting to the bush.

The rectangular piece _e_ is then bolted to the lathe face-plate and pierced with a hole, which from this method of chucking will be exactly central to its slot, and at a right angle to its base. The bush is now dispensed with and the piece _e_ is chucked with its base against the face-plate and the hole pierced as above, closely fitting to the pin on the end of the plug _c_, which, therefore, holds _e_ true.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 275.]

The bars A are then chucked one at a time in the piece _e_ (the outer end resting upon a parallel piece _f_), and a hole is pierced near one end, this hole being from this method of chucking exactly central to the width of the bar A, and at a right angle to its face.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 276.]

The parallel piece _f_ is then provided with a pin closely fitting the hole thus pierced in the bar. The bars were turned end for end with the hole enveloping the pin in _f_ (the latter being firmly fixed to the face-plate), and the other end laid in the slot in _e_, while the second hole was pierced. The holes (X, Fig. 274) must be, from this method of chucking, exactly an equal distance apart on each bar. The bars were then let together at their ends, each being cut half-way through and closely fitting pins inserted in the holes X, thus producing an equilateral triangle entirely by machine work, and therefore as correct as it can possibly be made, and this triangle is kept as a standard gauge whereby others for shop use may be made by the following process:--

Into the interior walls of this triangle there is fitted a cylindrical bush B, it being obvious that this bush is held axially true or central to the triangle, and it is secured in place by screws _y_, _y_, _y_, pa.s.sing through its f.l.a.n.g.e and into bars A.

At one end of the bush B, is a cylindrical part D, whose diameter is 2 inches or equal to the length of one side of an equilateral triangle circ.u.mscribed about a circle whose diameter is 1.1547 inches, as shown in Fig. 278 and through this bush B pa.s.ses a pin P, having a nut N. A small triangle is then roughed out, and its bore fitting to the stem of pin P, and by means of nut N, the small triangle is gripped between the under face of D and the head of P. The large triangle is then held to an angle-plate upon a machine while resting upon the machine-table, and the uppermost edge of the small triangle is dressed down level with the cylindrical stem D, which thus serves as a gauge to determine how much to take off each edge of the small triangle to bring it to correct dimensions.

The truth of the angles of the small triangle depends, of course, also upon the large one; thus with face H resting upon the machine-table, face G is cut down level with stem D; with face F upon the table, face E is cut down level with D; and with face L upon the table, face K is dressed down level with D. And we have a true equilateral triangle produced by a very ingenious system of chuckings, each of which may be known to be true.

The next operation is to cut upon the small triangle the flat representing the top and bottom of the United States standard thread, which is done by cutting off one-eighth part of its vertical height, and it then becomes a test piece or standard gauge of the form of thread.

The next step is to provide a micrometer by means of which tools for various pitches may be tested both for angle and for width of flat, and this is accomplished as follows:--

[Ill.u.s.tration: _VOL. I_ =MEASURING AND GAUGING SCREW THREADS.= _PLATE III._

Fig. 279.

Fig. 280.

Fig. 281.

Fig. 282.

Fig. 285.

Fig. 286.

Fig. 283.

Fig. 284.

Fig. 287.]

In Fig. 278 F is a jaw fixed by a set screw to the bar of the micrometer, and E is a sliding jaw; these two jaws being fitted to the edges of the triangle or test piece T in the figure which has been made as already described. To the sliding jaw E is attached the micrometer screw C, which has a pitch of 40 threads per inch; the drum A upon the screw has its circ.u.mference divided into 250 equidistant divisions, hence if the drum be moved through a s.p.a.ce equal to one of these divisions the sliding jaw E will be moved the 1-250th part of 1-40th of an inch, or in other words the 1-10,000th of an inch. To properly adjust the position of the zero piece or pointer, the test piece T is placed in the position shown in Fig. 278, and when the jaws were so adjusted that light was excluded from the three edges of the test piece, the pointer R, Fig. 277, was set opposite to the zero mark on the drum and fastened.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 277.]

To set the instrument for any required pitch of thread of the United States standard form the micrometer is used to move the sliding jaw E away from the fixed jaw F to an amount equal to the width of flat upon the top and bottom, of the required thread, while for the sharp [V]-thread the jaws are simply closed. The gauge being set the tool is ground to the gauge.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 278.]

Referring to the third requirement, that the tools shall in the case of lathe work be easily sharpened and set to correct position in the lathe, it will be treated in connection with cutting screws in the lathe.

Referring to the fourth requirement, that a minimum of measuring and gauging shall be required to test the diameter and form of thread, it is to be observed that in a Whitworth thread the angle and depth of the thread is determined by the chaser, which may be constantly ground to resharpen without altering the angles or depth of the thread, hence in cutting the tooth the full diameter of the thread is all that needs to be gauged or measured. In cutting a sharp [V]-thread, however, the thread top is apt to project (from the action of the single-pointed tool) slightly above the natural diameter of the work, producing a feather edge which it becomes necessary to file off to gauge the full diameter of the thread. In originating a sharp [V]-thread it is necessary first to grind the tool to correct angle; second, to set it at the correct height in the latter, and with the tool angles at the proper angle with the work (as is explained with reference to thread cutting in the lathe) and to gauge the thread to the proper diameter. In the absence of a standard cylindrical gauge or piece to measure from, a sheet metal gauge, such as in Fig. 279, may be applied to the thread; such gauges are, however, difficult to correctly produce.