Tap and Die

Nothing to do with hitmen, I assure you.

My spot welder has been out of action for a while as the copper electrodes have bitten the dust and I couldn't find any replacements, anywhere.

As you can see, they're lengths of copper with a thread at one end so they can screw into the holders that attach to the arms of the spot rivetter.

I had bought a length of the correct diameter copper rod to try and make my own but, as there was no urgency, I placed it to the back of my mind - especially as I'd never put a thread on anything, except a sewing needle.

Last week I spotted a thread gauge in Lidl and thought; "That'll be handy for determining the thread of quite a few things, especially the copper spot welder electrodes, and I'll be needing that soon for the GT6 rear valance repair section."

Anyway, yesterday I thought I'd have a go, realising I had bought a tap and die set several years ago at Aldi, but had never used it - one of those things you think might come in handy one day, but you don't know when. I determined the thread size with the gauge from Lidl and then spend an hour trying to find my tap and die set. I finally found it in the least likely place in the workshop - in pristine condition.

On opening the set I discovered there was already a thread gauge in it.

So that was a total waste of money at Lidl, but I suppose I can keep the Lidl one in my toolbox for emergency use when needing to measure the thread of bolts with missing nuts.

I proceeded to tap an M6 (that's a technical term, apparently) thread on each end of the copper rod and then cut the ends off.

Very pleased with the result, not being an engineer, but a navigator. This engineering stuff really is easy, much easier than navigation, which is an art (if you're not cheating and using a GPS). Engineering is just logic and brute strength.

I'll probably get all manner of sarky comments from my engineering buddies now.

I also made some smaller ones, about 1cm in length, that I can use in inaccessible spaces where a large arm gap is a hindrance. They don't give much additional wiggle room, but better than nothing.

I really need to invest in different arm shapes, or use bent copper electrodes for narrow spaces - like in the image below.