General Thread File

HarryMann: Some here may not have come across a thread file, but these are very handy tool for cleaning/trueing up slightly damaged threads. In some cases, depending on the nature of the damage and the therad material, quite badly damagedtherads can ve restored with a little TLC using a therad file.

They're used in the way of a file, back and forth, nor great pressure and of course, the threads have to be engaged and they are used not at right angles to the therad but at the thread#s helix angle, slightly offset to the normal angle.

The most important thing of course is to select the correct thread! Whether you know or not the target damaged thread, always lay the therad file onto the therad and using a stronmg backlight, eyeball the two together to make sure you are in fact using the correct one.

N.B. There are of course different pitches for each thread in the metric range, see the following link to Metric threads... std. metric is usually medium or coarse, and fine is usually non-standard.