Is this a “Never Ending Battle”??????

[Paul Allwood]

Man is the only critter that buys tools to make tools for his tools.

Seems ok to me.

 

[TheOldHokie]

Well fellas, The UPS guy came a wee bit earlier than normal, so I was able to try and power tap for the first time ever!!!!!

I ordered 2 small sets of taps, cause I was unsure which one would work better.

When I ordered them, I did not see that the one set was a called spiral pointed bottom taps. (left set)

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That piqued my interest for some reason.

Now because I have drilled all the holes already, I had to use the “pointy” part of my edge finder to locate them, cause I could not figure out how to set up any sort of indicator for such a small hole.

So, I had to revert to a "Cro-Magnon methodology"…I put the pointy part in the hole, turned the mill on very low rpm, and used my finger nail to “feel” the edge finder "go smooth" on all sides…..

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Crude???? YES.....but it worked I guess. (so that whole "no more shortcuts” thing lasted about 14 minutes )

Well let me tell you gentlemen, 'power taping’ is the BOMB !!!!!!!


Basically I just chucked the spiral pointed bottom tap in an R8 drill chuck, turned the VFD to “stupid slow” and she tapped out those holes in “no time flat”.

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The very fact that the tap would “slip”, was sort of a “blessing in disguise”.

When I would get near the end of a hole, the slipping acted as sort of a “clutch mechanism”...

Just luck you say????? Why yes, it probably was, but it's a “Win”, so I’ll take it.


Now for today, I am going to make those “stand offs” to complete the “mini-project"

Dont over think setup..

You had pre-drilled the holes. Use your tap drill bit as a pilot to position the work piece you are going to tap BEFORE you clamp it to the table. Then change to the tap.

Dan

 

[Sidekick]

I was literally thinking of making something identical!!!


But I was worried about it/them “banging around”

Thanks for posting that

Centrifugal force holds them steady. Once you give the part a little tap against them before final tightening they don't move again. If you're worried, you could screw on a centering pilot that slips into the center hole. For bigger stuff just flip the jaws to the stepped side.

 

[Runs With Scissors]

Dont over think setup..

You had pre-drilled the holes. Use your tap drill bit as a pilot to position the work piece you are going to tap BEFORE you clamp it to the table. Then change to the tap.

Dan

Yes sir. I agree completely.

I was really “sweating the load” in regard to breaking off a tap.

I have had the unfortunate experience of breaking taps off in work pieces, and my concern is that without a “human feel” for it, snapping a tap off is a distinct possibility.

I got the idea to try “power tapping” after I had drilled all the holes…I was originally going to just “hand tap” them; Like I have been for the last 40’ish years…..

But then I said to myself…... “Hell, you gotta try it sometime….may as well be now"

Therefore I hade to go back and relocate the holes, and this was, in my head, the only way I could get it super close to the original position.

 

[Lil Foot]

Therefore I hade to go back and relocate the holes, and this was, in my head, the only way I could get it super close to the original position.

Buy yourself a complete set of drill blanks- fractional, number, letter, & metric.
Chuck the appropriate one up, sneak the table around until the blank drops in, tap away.

Oh, but then there's that never ending buying thing again.

 

[Lil Foot]

I have always used parallels for chucking thin parts.
Of course, don't forget to remove them before starting the spindle.
Just get several sets so you can cover lots of different scenarios.

Oops, there's that never ending buying thing again.