Tapping Chuck

[mozz]

Hi all, first time on your site and hoping for some help. Bought a 'tapping chuck' for the lathe from ebay. Made in China, of course, looks well made with 7 collets, BUT no instructions!! Have asked seller but of course no answer there, he has my $$....:: . Googled it, nothing. It has a collet spanner but I cant make it do anything ! -..so if anyone would be good enough to guide me how to use please, it would be appreciated thanks..:

 

[FOMOGO]

Looks like there should be two pin holes in the collar nut to fit your spanner. Back off the collar, install insert, and tighten collar. give a test run at lowest possible speed, and let us know how it goes, and welcome to the forum. Mike

 

[mozz]

Hi Mike, thanks for that. I have previously fitted the collet to the body and fitted a tap into the collet, all good. What I can't figure is how to adjust the collet with the spanner. The spanner fits into the holes like you said BUT the collet won't turn either way ???? There is what looks like a wire C clip arrangement that may have to come off before the collar turns now that i think about it more.....will check tomorrow when its daytime lol Thanks

 

[ErichKeane]

I don't have that tapping chuck, but I wonder if the collet isn't all the way in? It appears to me that the silver knurled part of the collet should be snapped closer to the black one. Could it just not have 'clicked' in yet? I could imagine that putting the collet under tension and making the adjustment not work.

Alternatively, see if the silver part twists to unlock the adjustment.

 

[macardoso]

It was my understanding with these chucks is that the tap holders are fixed size and not adjustable. Then they snap into the body of the holder. No spanner adjustments needed

 

[higgite]

Deleted.

Edit: I was wrong. I hate it when that happens.

Tom

 

[BGHansen]

Looks like you have a tension/compression tapping head similar to the Tormach below. I attached the instructions from Tormach in the PDF. They sell a few varieties, instructions for this style are on pages 5-8.

I'm curious how it works out for you. My understanding is the spring "slop" in the head is to allow the spindle to turn at a different rate than the feed advance. Where that's important on the Tormach 770 and 1100 series is the spindle speed is approximate, not 100% accurate. I could set my spindle to turn at 100 RPM and feed the Z at 10 inches per minute and expect to cut 10 threads per inch. But a spindle speed of 100 might be 105 or 95, so I'm not turning the spindle at the same rate as the Z-feed on the head. The T/C head is keyed so the head and arbor turn together, but they can slip on the Z-axis to allow the head to float down or up the arbor. There's around 3/4" float on the Tormach one shown below.

I'm thinking you'll want to leave your tail stock unlocked to the bed in use. Jam the tap in the hole of your chucked work, jog the lathe to advance the tap. Let the tap pull the tail stock along the bed. Stop the spindle and reverse the lathe to back out the tap. A tap held in a drill chuck would work the same, would just take a little longer to change sizes.

Of course, I could be totally off base and maybe what you have is an auto-reverse Procunier type head.

Bruce

 

[pontiac428]

The spanner is for adjusting the clutching action on the ANSI/Bilz type tap collets pictured. Everything else (tap, collet, arbor) should just snap together. It's a good system.

 

[mozz]

It was my understanding with these chucks is that the tap holders are fixed size and not adjustable. Then they snap into the body of the holder. No spanner adjustments needed

Hi, there are 7 different collets for different size taps. There is supposed to be a clutch adjustment on the collet to allow slippage....so I am told.

 

[mozz]

The spanner is for adjusting the clutching action on the ANSI/Bilz type tap collets pictured. Everything else (tap, collet, arbor) should just snap together. It's a good system.

Ahh yes, the question is how do I adjust the clutching action ??? cheers