Sorry to ping an old video but question. I've seen Micah adjust the die head 4 times, each time rolling a deeper thread. Then I've seen the Hozan videos demonstrate one and done. You ran yours twice but with no adjustment to the die. Is there any reason to do this in increments, or does Hozan instruct you to set it to the right depth and just do it once (with maybe a second pass for good measure?)
Hozan instructions are set and forget, pretty much. IIRC, there's nothing in there about multiple passes, but I may be mis remembering. In my experience, 2-3 passes at the right depth works well. If I try to adjusting the rollers tighter to get it in one, they begin to contact each other too often, and that locks up the head, making a big mess that requires disassembly and re-setting. This is because each rolling cutter moves independently forward and back on a little axis parallel to its center axis, and they're something like a bisected barrel in shape, narrow ends toward the spoke end. Thats to allow them to sort of self-center/phase themselves within the thread dimensions. Of course, it can also get them out of phase and lock things up. The adjustment process simply moves a nut down the slotted, cone-shaped thread that secures all of them to the spindle. It's brute force changing the diameter. So, since these all slide back and forth in the direction of the spoke axis (their own little axle axes too), if they are too close together, the fat ends (toward the drill) can contact each other and get the roller threads stuck out of phase with one another, causing a jam. The tighter you make the initial adjustment, the more likely this is. In practice, as I load each spoke, I use it to tap the 3 rolling heads back toward the drill/handle to reseat them at their furthest point. Then, I seat the spoke with maybe 5-8mm of space before the heads begin to contact it. That way, when you rotate the entire thing and push it toward the now-locked spoke, they all contact gradually and can settle in phase and begin rolling properly. Because the little axles for each rolling head are somewhat flexible (as is the main threading that holds them all), subsequent passes roll the threads a tiny bit deeper than the first. Hope that makes sense. Adjusting the depth is tricky to get right and it's also not simple to do. It takes two wrenches working in opposition to each other, and a couple of minutes minimum in a best case scenario. If you did that several times for each spoke you'd probably 10 minutes per spoke.
Nope. They need to be rolled (they're not cut by the threader, but rolled) and they're a very fine pitch. Nothing else will really work. Even the threader gets it wrong sometimes. A tiny bit off and the nipples won't screw on.
Sorry to ping an old video but question. I've seen Micah adjust the die head 4 times, each time rolling a deeper thread. Then I've seen the Hozan videos demonstrate one and done. You ran yours twice but with no adjustment to the die.
Is there any reason to do this in increments, or does Hozan instruct you to set it to the right depth and just do it once (with maybe a second pass for good measure?)
Hozan instructions are set and forget, pretty much. IIRC, there's nothing in there about multiple passes, but I may be mis remembering. In my experience, 2-3 passes at the right depth works well. If I try to adjusting the rollers tighter to get it in one, they begin to contact each other too often, and that locks up the head, making a big mess that requires disassembly and re-setting.
This is because each rolling cutter moves independently forward and back on a little axis parallel to its center axis, and they're something like a bisected barrel in shape, narrow ends toward the spoke end. Thats to allow them to sort of self-center/phase themselves within the thread dimensions. Of course, it can also get them out of phase and lock things up. The adjustment process simply moves a nut down the slotted, cone-shaped thread that secures all of them to the spindle. It's brute force changing the diameter. So, since these all slide back and forth in the direction of the spoke axis (their own little axle axes too), if they are too close together, the fat ends (toward the drill) can contact each other and get the roller threads stuck out of phase with one another, causing a jam. The tighter you make the initial adjustment, the more likely this is.
In practice, as I load each spoke, I use it to tap the 3 rolling heads back toward the drill/handle to reseat them at their furthest point. Then, I seat the spoke with maybe 5-8mm of space before the heads begin to contact it. That way, when you rotate the entire thing and push it toward the now-locked spoke, they all contact gradually and can settle in phase and begin rolling properly. Because the little axles for each rolling head are somewhat flexible (as is the main threading that holds them all), subsequent passes roll the threads a tiny bit deeper than the first.
Hope that makes sense.
Adjusting the depth is tricky to get right and it's also not simple to do. It takes two wrenches working in opposition to each other, and a couple of minutes minimum in a best case scenario. If you did that several times for each spoke you'd probably 10 minutes per spoke.
Is there a way to thread the spokes without a theeader
Nope. They need to be rolled (they're not cut by the threader, but rolled) and they're a very fine pitch. Nothing else will really work. Even the threader gets it wrong sometimes. A tiny bit off and the nipples won't screw on.