Thanks for the quick reply, Keith! I found the Alias sprial tutorial, and yeah, it rocks. I knew there had to be an easy way to create a spiral like that.

Unfortunately, if I'm reading it right, I would end up with a second object for the threads, not a single threaded metal cap for the bulb. I'm not sure how I would combine them without an obvious seam.

This is the lightbulb I'm trying to recreate, see how the threads are totally seamless?