This may be simple and obvious to most of you but Im not a machinist but my mother's husband is and he showed me this easy tip on how to start threads fast and easy. 1. Chuck tap in drill press. 2. put item to tap in cross vice. 3. lower drillpress without turning it on and turn chuck by hand while applying light pressure with drill press handle. I know sounds stupid but it has saved me so much time. Being a novice, its fun learning these little tricks.
I use a piece of 1" steel a couple inches square with a hole the tap will just drop through. center over hole, drop tap in and clamp down. Doesn't take long to make a full set and can be used anywhere there is a flat surface.
Yea that helps for sure. The guy who showed me actually had a tabletop drill press that he left the belt loose and just ran the tap down till the belt slipped. Im not that brave.
32, not to outdo you or any little thing like that, but I'll go one step better. Dont put the actual tap in the chuck, but make a arbor. Notice in the end of the tap, the little hole in the center, that's there for a reason. A arbor is just a small, straight piece of steel and you cut on a lathe or just grind a point on one end. Now chuck this into the chuck of the drill press, and then place the tap into the hole your taping. The pointed end of the arbor goes int the hole in the end of the tap. Have a t-handle type tap handle on the tap itself, and with the quill, just keep enough tension on the tap and arbor to keep the tap verticle and straight. Use the t-handle to actually turn the tap and cut the threads. My favorite arbor has been used and never resharpened in over 30 years. I made it from an old Chevy 1.600" exhaust valve. I cut the head off, and turned down a taper to a sharp point on the end opposite the keepers. Using the arbor just keeps you from breaking taps, as you have a much better "feel " for the tap, because its not supported by the chuck directly. Your way is GREAT, mine just goes a step further.
And to take it a step further yet, I bought a used Tapmatic cheap and let the drill (or in my case Mill) do the work. And for doing this in tubing, like say a tie rod, I use the lathe in a similar fashion - put the drill chuck (or Tapmatic) in the tail stock and turn the lathe. Straight and true every time
Like I said I'm not a machinist but I just love learning this stuff because it keeps improving my work thanks.
I have "Skip thread taps" that are designed for high speed tapping. Great for tapping the tubing ends for tie rod end however I would be afraid of bottoming out a tap at speed!
I'm a machinist too and that's the way it's taught to be done only there's a tap holder that holds the tap and it goes into the quill once the chuck is removed.
Tapmatic tapping head....here's a whole page of them. Not real cheap but worth it if you have to do a lot of wrinkles.... http://shop.ebay.com/items/tapmatic tapping head?_dmd=1&_sop=12
I just found it also. *****en tool. Funny part is I have that same 20 inch Powermatic drill press. But mine has the powerfeed funtion. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W_tkCZgNutI
My dad was a toolmaker for 39 yrs. I watched him tap the clutch holes in my flathead flywheel with the drill press.......ON! I was (and still am) amazed. I really like to take stuff like that to him. I always learn somethin.
Cool ****. So, you use your own taps on that Tapmatic head? Seems like it goes fast enough to break a tap if you hit a hard/tight spot
Groucho: A tapmatic has a reversing clutch in it so all you have to do is pull up and tap reverses direction.We use one at work works great.
'Power tapping' is taking a chance if you do it without using a tapping head but it can be done successfully if you go slow enough. When we tapped 17-4ph stainless, we went with a 1/64ths larger drill bit than listed for everything else and went really slow with that and pulled out a lot to clean off the tap.
How slow (rpm) do you have to get your drill press for this technique to work? As the tap begins to grab (tap) the metal, does it automatically pull the drill press chuck and tap down into the work piece to create the threads?
Make sure drill press head straight up and down and bed level (use bubble level) if not it causes a strange result <grin> BTDT
tapping 7/8 DOM for hairpins.cut the tube a couple inches longer. we don't have a big lathe so I use a slow right angle drill motor, plenty of cutting fluid, and start with a drill bit that will just remove a little bit of metal then keep changing bits until I get to the right size for the tap. I then change to a drill bit to match the od of the tap. drill ONE inch deep,. the tap will slide in and then I can tap good straight threads, then cut off the extra inch. redrill with the size required for the tap. Finish tap to the depth needed. chamfer the end . IT takes quite a while. I just made a trade with a new friend that has a big lathe in his shop. I get Lathe time in exchange for parts he needed.
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