Tapping Fixture

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?
 
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?

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
 
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

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
 
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

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
 
What do you consider a deep throat? Besides LL

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).
 
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).

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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