Spokes - part 2

Today, I started out with preparing the spokes.
I had an idea in mind to make the threading easy, because my first attempt to cut the thread on the end of the spokes ended up with an uneven result:

As you can see, the thread is not cut symmetrically mainly because I was unable to keep the spoke steady in the middle of the cutting die. This should not affect the strength of the spoke, because the thread is cut all around the spoke. Still, it looks crappy and unprofessional.
I came up with this setup in my lathe to 'feed' the spoke to the cutter:

Basically, It's a piece of metal with a hole of 3mm centered before the cutter. The cutter is clamped in the chuck of the lathe. I used a little M3 bolt to position the hole exactly in the middle of the cutter.

Unfortunately, this setup did not prove to be practical. So I decided to use my vise clamp to do the job manually.

In the picture, you can see the improved version with pieces of aluminium to protect the spoke from little nicks and scratches. I started out without this protection, but the imprints of the claws were too deep.

A number of finished spokes with the nut attached:

A quick simulation in the front hub:

As you can see, the nuts hide the sloppy welding in the back so it will look nice once completed.