Hand Tapper Restoration

Hi Robert,

Nice ! Yes cross drilling and a pair of grub screws will work nicely.

Thanks for the update on that little disc.
 
I have same Phase II unit. I typically use a 4" drill press vise to hold the detail being tapped, so was always running out of vertical height and was hard to keep the vise on the narrow table. I bought a 12 x 16 3/8 think plate and screwed it down to the base. Made a 3.5" rectangular riser block to make the arm higher. Works perfect for me now, really like it.
 
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One other thought was to cross drill 2 orthogonal holes and then set pins into them (possibly hardened) and solder in place. The ends of the 4 pins would create the square. The outside could be turned or ground smooth. I think this would work great but seems too complicated.
If my set screws come loose I could always go back and silver solder them in place once I get the depth right.
I am thinking about using a low profile drill vise. Not sure my mini mill is up to the task of machining a long groove in cast iron. I suppose I could send it out.
Robert
 
Hi Robert,

Cast iron is easy to mill ! Use a slot drill a mm or so smaller so you can clean the slot width up later. Take material out in say half or 1 mm steps.
The only caveat is that sometimes an un-machined surface can have a very hard skin.

The trick here is to make the cut depth deeper than the skin. The same applies the other way, you will be cutting down to a hard skin. So the last cut needs to get below it. What I have just said assumes that you will start cutting from the already machined side of the base. Also remember that the edges will have a very hard skin, since they are un-machined.
 
Thanks Barron. Maybe I will give it a try. By a "slot drill" I assume you mean and end mill?

OK, COLOR ME EMBARRASSED! I just found out that metric and SAE taps use the same shank diameter so metric adapters are unnecessary. The 6mm=1/4", the 5mm=#10, the 4mm = #8. Duh. I'm glad I did not finish all 3!

That's ok though. It gives me time to start on my next project. I am making a metric adapter for my SAE Vise Grips.

Robert
 
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Hi Robert,

Don't be embarrassed about making a mistake ! It is how we learn some things :)
Anyway I have several taps that have the same shank diameter and quite different sizes across the flats. Making a collet with a pair of opposing grub screws would allow for that.

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This is my tapping stand. The base is a cast iron barbell weight, I forget how much it weighed. I turned all the lettering off on both sides, which nicely reduced it to 1" inch thick.

The upright is a 13" inch length of silver steel (drill rod) 20 mm in diameter. I used a short length of silver steel with a scallop cut in it, drilled right through 5 mm (tapping size for M6) and then cut it in half through the scallop. I threaded one end M6 and clearance drilled the other half. I used an M6 cap screw with a brass collar and pressed a plastic bottle cap over it to make the knob.

The tap holder is a Moore & Wright long series one supported in a brass split bush. The arm is a length of 1" X 1/8" wall aluminum tube. The round piece at the end is a removable tapping block. As I said earlier Its heavy.
 
I have one made out of a old drill stand. Here is one of the videos I made about mine.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
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R
 
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