Originally Posted by
gugie
Have you retapped English to Italian before? Does one ream a bit to remove threads first, or can you "force feed" an Italian tap on the adjustable side, then use that to center the tap on the fixed side?
It's best to ream first; forcing an Italian thread tap would be difficult. Bicycle Research used to offer a reamer/tap set for this purpose. I've used it several times with good success.