Subject: Re: Inexpensive source for this size tap?

From: [email-masked] (J. Kimberlin)
Date: 18 Feb 1995 17:17:46 -0800

In article <[email-masked]> [email-masked] (Lee S Wilfinger) writes:
>Folks,
>
>	I've been looking into the possibility of making my own
>finials (for holding lampshades to the lamp harp) and harp risers (for
>raising the lampshade a certain amount to improve the appearance) from
>scrap brass. Sounds straightforward enough; a final is essentially a
>decorative nut.
>
>	It seems that lamp hardware uses a 1/4 - 27 (yes, *27*)
>thread.  I know that taps are available for this thread, but the one
>source I've found sells them for around $23 apiece. Would anyone
>happen to know of a source which is cheaper? I realize it's probably a
>long shot; it's clearly not a common size.
>
>This thread size seems to be the height of obnoxiousness ( well, I
>suppose it could have been worse; it *could* have been a left-handed
>thread :-) ). Does anyone know the history/reasons behind using such
>a weird thread size for lamp hardware?
>
>Come to think of it, what thread size is used in countries which use
>the metric system?
>
>-Lee

1/4-27 right hand taps cost $6.34 in my Travers tool catalogue.  MSC 
probably has them too. 800-722-0703.  stock # 14-016-272 for a plug tap.  
Make sure the thing is 1/4-27 as both 1/4-28 and 1/4-26 are more common.

JerryK