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I vaguely recall the lathes in the engineering workshop I used as an undergraduate having stops you could set to disengage the auto-feed
Stops are an option, basic lathes don't have them. An advanced tool room lathe might disengage the half nut and retract the tool to the clearance height. For mass production (old skool) , you might use a turret lathe with expanding dies (and collapsing taps for the internal threads). If NYCCNC was making the part he would do it on a VMC and mill the threads, because he hates lathes 🙂
Ah right; I vaguely recall the lathes in the engineering workshop I used as an undergraduate having stops you could set to disengage the auto-feed, but that was a long time ago now.