Tapping Fixture

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Charley Davidson

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I'm starting a tapping fixture in the morning as I have quite a few 5/16 holes to tap, any do's/ don'ts features I may want to add?
 
Charley Davidson said:
I'm starting a tapping fixture in the morning as I have quite a few 5/16 holes to tap, any do's/ don'ts features I may want to add?
Click to expand...

What type of tapping fixture are you planning, a free standing or a tooling for a drill press? If free standing and hand powered use a four fluted tap and make a half turn then back it out. Repeat until tapped through. If building this type of fixture add a light pressure spring to hold up the tap portion. Good luck
 
Bill C. said:
What type of tapping fixture are you planning, a free standing or a tooling for a drill press? If free standing and hand powered use a four fluted tap and make a half turn then back it out. Repeat until tapped through. If building this type of fixture add a light pressure spring to hold up the tap portion. Good luck
Click to expand...

Gonna be a free standing unit, I'll do a spring setup, thanks
Got a pretty slick way of holding, aligning and spinning the tap
 
If you are tapping through holes I would strongly recommend getting some spiral point ("shooting") taps. I recently tried them out, and WOW! No binding, now tap-wrench hokey-pokey. The just drive straight in and the chips shoot out the other side of the hole. I usually get nervous about tapping, especially with small taps, but these things are great. In fact, they were working so well in aluminum, I though that the tap hadn't engaged (it was turning so smoothly) until I saw the chip emerging from the opposite end.

As far as the fixture, I would say, make sure you have enough throat so that it will be useful. Also make sure you arrange for holding different size taps. I have also seen a counter balance arrangement on some that helps with really small taps.

There is also something like this if you want something more "ambitious"

http://www.cnccookbook.com/CCTappingArm.htm
 
DMS said:
If you are tapping through holes I would strongly recommend getting some spiral point ("shooting") taps. I recently tried them out, and WOW! No binding, now tap-wrench hokey-pokey. The just drive straight in and the chips shoot out the other side of the hole. I usually get nervous about tapping, especially with small taps, but these things are great. In fact, they were working so well in aluminum, I though that the tap hadn't engaged (it was turning so smoothly) until I saw the chip emerging from the opposite end.

As far as the fixture, I would say, make sure you have enough throat so that it will be useful. Also make sure you arrange for holding different size taps. I have also seen a counter balance arrangement on some that helps with really small taps.

There is also something like this if you want something more "ambitious"

http://www.cnccookbook.com/CCTappingArm.htm
Click to expand...

Those spiral cutting taps are great. I don't recall using them in a hand operation but there is no reason not to.
 
We should start a "Post your tapping machine" thread... I love threads like that! And we can learn from each others' designs! :)



Bernie
 
Hmmm... Maybe THIS should be that thread hah hah



Bernie
 
Charley Davidson said:
What do you consider a deep throat? Besides LL
Click to expand...

Depends on the work you do. For me, I would figure at least 8 inches. If I need larger I could move to the drill press. I have thought about building one of these for a while, and one of the features I would like is an easily removable support arm so that I can stow it away easily (not a lot of spare room in the shop).
 
DMS said:
Depends on the work you do. For me, I would figure at least 8 inches. If I need larger I could move to the drill press. I have thought about building one of these for a while, and one of the features I would like is an easily removable support arm so that I can stow it away easily (not a lot of spare room in the shop).
Click to expand...

Well mine will be both, my arm is 9" so I'll have about 7" actual throat and it will be detachable, I still can make a couple changes to help make it easier to r&r and maybe get another inch of throat depth.


go ahead and use this thread like Pineyfolks angle plate thread but for tapping fixtures
 
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