Bill provided his notes for the demo on the flip-chart. This picture has all the general information that Bill presented.

Bill recommends using hard wood. Most of the wood that Bill uses comes from the  dalbergia family. Blackwood, kingwood and cocobolo are some of the better woods for threading.  Others that Bill finds work well are lignum vitae, boxwood, osage orange, desert ironwood, and redheart.Generally, you can get into thread chasing for about $100. You need a set of thread chasers that costs $66 and an arm rest that costs about $30. There are videos by Mark St. Leger and by Allan Batty that are very helpful and informative that can be purchased in the $20 to $40 range.

Bill demonstrated for us his thread chasing techniques by showing us how to make wooden bolts and nuts.

	The bolt and nut starts off with a 1 3/8 by 1 7/16 blank generally 3 1/4 inches long for the bolt plus 1 inch for the nut. The blank is cut with a band or table saw with the blade set at a 30° angle.Bill generally gets the sides even by running through a jointer. You have to be very careful with this technique because of the shape and small size of the blank.
	The nut blank is glued to a mandrel that is turned with a taper on the end. The blank is bored to 5/8". A taper is make to start with for the thread start.
	The tool rest is set at a slight angle to give better access to the end of the bolt.
	Run the lathe at about 340 RPM. Push the thread chaser gently in and follow the thread. The pitch on the thread chaser controls the rate of feed, do not push the tool. Be gentle, there is no rush. Just gently push in and follow the thread. Be sure to make the sides parallel. You need to pull out at the end of the thread to prevent the chaser from binding on the last few threads and stripping.
	Bill has a threaded mandrel that he uses for checking the nut threads.
	When the threads are properly formed, he cuts the nut off the mandrel with a parting tool, reverses the nut in the threaded mandrel and finishes the top.
	The mandrel is cleaned up and prepared for the next piece. The bolt blank is glued to the mandrel with superglue. The tailstock is brought up to apply pressure to insure the bond.
	Define the bolt head by cutting the shaft down to the approximate diameter, 11/16", with a parting tool.
	The shaft of the bolt is turned to 11/16 inches in diameter. Care must be taken to insure that the sides of the shaft are parallel.
	A slight relief is cut at the end of the threads, defining the start and stop of the threads.
	Run the lathe at about 340 RPM. Push the thread chaser gently in and follow the thread. Start gentle, once the tool is started it will find it's own thread. Again, you need to pull out at the end of the thread to prevent the chaser from binding on the last few threads and stripping. Continue threading until the threads are properly formed and the nut fits smoothly. When the threads are properly formed, he cuts the bolt off the mandrel with a parting tool, reverses the bolt in a chuck and finishes the top.
	Thanks Bill
	Some completed nuts and bolts.

Some questions and answers:

Q-Do you cut on center (with the thread chasers)?
A-Just move around until it feels right.

Q-Once started, does (the tool) find it's own thread?
A-Yes, it finds it's own thread. Start only a few threads at a time.

Q-How do you tell when the tool is bottomed out?
A-You can see it.

Q-What is the pitch on the thread?
A-I am using 10 threads per inch. 16 is better but I didn't like the look.

Q-Can we use the same techniques on boxes?
A-Yes, you can use this technique on boxes.