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I've been working on a project lately that you might find interesting
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I'm making a railing for a loft and staircase using black iron pipe
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which is what you see here. And part of the process involves establishing threads on the end of
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these pipes. I've already done that over here on this side, and now I need to create some more threads so that this cap with
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these fittings can screw onto the end. So this is inch and a half black iron pipe
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I've been threading this stuff for years using tools like this. This is just a hand tool
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It's kind of a ratchet thing. You know, you turn it and ratchet it back and it works fine
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It takes a long time though, and it's actually kind of hard to hold the pipe while you're doing this
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As you can imagine, there's a lot of leverage. One thing that helps me to hold the pipe is this pipe vise
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It's not a very fancy or expensive one. It's made in China
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I think it costs about $50 or $60, something like that. There are much more expensive ones, but this one works fine
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You can see it opens up. There's some serrated jaws in here that hold the pipe
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And it does a great job. It makes the process a whole lot easier
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But the main focus of this video is to show you, which probably
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well, certainly it's the biggest and heaviest cordless power tool I've ever used
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And this is this Milwaukee threader. It's designed to thread all kinds of black iron pipe
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The same, the same die, rigid dies that fit into this handle
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are made to fit into this tool. And the tool just kind of spins it around
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It really not only speeds up the process, but also makes it work
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a lot better. And it's a one-person job when you're using this tool
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So I'm going to show you how it works. It's kind of surprising, really
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It's going to turn. It's going to revolve as you see it. And it's going to basically peel out ribbons of metal, cutting
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the threads into the end of this pipe here. Now, in order for this to work properly, we need to use the
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right kind of cutting oil, not just any oil, but actual cutting
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oil makes a big difference. I've used a few different kinds of cutting oil. So far, this is the best. Dark cutting oil
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I don't know how important that is, but it's especially meant for cutting threads, thread cutting oil, and it works great
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I'm going to be putting a lot more on than this, but this will
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get me going. I should mention, too, this clamp works with the threader
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It clamps on and it basically braces the threader so that the
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threader doesn't turn, the die does, and it cuts the thread as
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it's supposed to. When I put the clamp on before, I put this shaft, which actually
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engages with the threader, more or less level with the pipe. But I discovered that that's kind of a problem because the
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threader needs to go further over than that. And the first time I tried this, the clamp stopped the threader
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from moving over as it threaded. So it held the threader stationary and it just kind of cleaned
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off all the threads. So now I move it back so that the end here is, you know, maybe
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an inch or so. It's not critical, but maybe an inch or so back from the end
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of the pipe. It's got to be good and tight, too, because there's a lot of
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it resists a lot of force. So give it a good, good tighten
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So just fits on like this. And we find it up. Like this
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You see it's engaged with this clamp, which of course I'll remove later
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So it can't really turn. Now I'm going to pull it in as I start it just to get the
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threads going. Almost forgot. Can you see how it's digging in there
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Didn't have to put on very much force at all to get it started. And as I've learned with this tool, you basically run it
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full blast. Once it's started like it is now, and once you've got it
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lubed up, you just pull the trigger in all the way and let it roll
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When I first started to use this tool, I thought, wow, that's a pretty big pipe
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I better go easy on the tool and I only give it a little bit of gas and it actually cut out on its own
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It has an internal system to prevent overheating and little did I know that not running it full blast actually caused
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it to cut out to protect itself. Running full blast, there's no problem
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So that's kind of tip number one. Another mistake I made initially was to treat this tool the
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same way I would a manual tap or die. And the procedure there is to cut some threads and then to
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back it off a bit to kind of nip off the ribbons that you've
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been removing and let them fall away and then you continue threading
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But another thing I discovered with this tool was that you just keep it running full blast the whole way
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Now, I have stopped it because I put on some more oil. You have to oil it two or three times when you're cutting
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that thread on the end, but you don't back up until you're finished
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Now, I'm almost there. You see the cutters are kind of flush with the end of the pipe
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I want to take it just a little bit further. Give it another shot of oil
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Okay, so that's the thread done. And all that remains to do now is to change the direction
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of the machine and to back it off. There's going to be a little thunk
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I don't know if you can see it, but the thunk happens when all those ribbons of steel have been cut off and then it just
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kind of unthreads. So let's see about the thunk. There it was
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There we go. Now, before I cut the next threads, I'm going to get
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rid of the bulk here. Quite sharp. You have to be careful
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But look here. Terrific threads. In record time. One person. And this now threads on perfectly
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And I'm on to the next part. You saw how clean the threads were. And as I mentioned, just want to put a little line here to
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get started. And you can watch this baby in action again. Just a little inward pressure to get the threads biting
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Now that's enough there
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They're grabbed. I don't need to push in anymore now, but I do want to lube it a bit
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I don't think you can overdo it with the oil. More lubing
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Okay, another thread done
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Time to back it off. There we go. Just as fast as that
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Now, if you've never worked with these pipe threading dies before, you should know the cutters that you can see in here
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They're replaceable. So these screws come out, the ring comes off, and the cutters
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can be replaced. $40 or $50 for a new set of cutters
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Should last a very, very long time. The risk is that they break rather than they wear out, at
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least in my experience. So lots of cutting oil. That's the key
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And then you're all set to do some pipe threading of your own
