It is possible to turn these on a metal lathe but it doesn't sound to me like
you own one. What you can do that hasn't been considered yet is to drill out
the entire threaded hole, then to fill it with epoxy like JB Weld, then drill
and tap the epoxy as if it were metal. You will still need a bottoming tap,
but if you get desperate you can just grind off the bottom 1/8" or so of your
existing tapered tap and that will make it into a bottoming tap.

Are you *sure* you can't find an 8-24 tap? MSC has one in their catalog,
their item 74817255, but they don't have one in stock and they want a
breathtaking $26.82 for it. See http://www.mscindustrial.com

You *are* on precisely the correct Web page.

Grant Erwin

Eric Pearson wrote:
We live in a house from the 20s and I am rehabbing a built-in "dresser". I
found the original nickel drawer pulls in a box in the basement. They look
great and they match the rest of the nickel hardware in the room, but
unfortunately most of the screws are missing. The screws look just like
modern 1-inch drawer-pull screws (machine screws) but instead of an 8-32
thread they are 8-24. I can't re-tap the holes in the pulls as 8-32 because
they are too shallow and I'm sure they won't hold. (My 8-32 tap has
"starter threads" for the first 1/4 inch so it just won't work.)

So right now I am stuck. I'd really love to restore the original hardware,
but I have no way to attach them securely. Does anybody have any
suggestions about where I might be able to find replacement screws? I need
16 of them. Or maybe somebody can think of another way to securely attach
the pulls? I have called and emailed a number of antique hardware sites,
but nobody seems to know what I am talking about. Modern hardware stores
(etc.) carry 8-32 and (rarely) 8-36 but not 8-24. I might even be willing
to pay to have custom screws made, if I could find somebody that would do
it.

-- Eric Pearson, Huntington Woods, Michigan

P.S. If this is not the right newsgroup, can somebody suggest a better one?