A makeshift tap wrench?

Ask at Carter Country. McBride's here in Austin does, seem to remember CC having gunsmithing. Yeah, you're not going to find out much at Academy.

But if you have the capability and enjoy it, there you go.

Pete Keillor

From reading this group and seeing the reluctance to accept any and all work that might entail any form of responsibility my guess is that gunsmiths probably have some pretty hefty overheads - liability insurance for things that go bang must be costly - and I'd guess that pure gunsmiths, guys that just work on guns and don't sell bits and pieces, may be a bit thin on the ground. Then add in the paper work that needs to get done and it is probably more rewarding to hire on at the local filling station. Cheers, John B.

Getting the hole drilled perpendicular to the received will be critical both for accurate installation and to avoid tap breakage. ==>One dodge is to fabricate a guide block that will fit into the receiver, with a hole drilled on a drill press that is a close fit for the drill to act as a guide.There is also considerable danger of breakage using an improvised tap wrench (such as a crescent wrench) because of applying side loads.

================ You will need a die stock and some way to securely clamp the barrel. You will also need to make sure the diameter you are trying to thread is not too big* (.5516" max). you may need to turn or file the bbl end down. Be advise there are some obscure federal gun regulations about threaded barrels (danger of mounting silencers) so be sure to locktite the brake so it can't be removed.

"F. George McDuffee" wrote in message

I bought a student-project(?) mild steel round bench block from an auction that works fine as a tapping guide. When the tap bites lightly into the walls of the guide hole and I press or clamp the block to the work the tap starts very well with no tendency to ream or tilt. I screw the tap in carefully first until it self-centers.

I think lightly threaded guide holes work better than shank-sized ones to start the tap, though I have to remove the guide after cutting the first few thread turns.

jsw

I bought a manual tapping machine from Gunner when I swung through Taft several years ago. Like this one:

Sounds like a pain, but not as much as a broken tap.

-- It takes as much energy to wish as to plan. --Eleanor Roosevelt

There's one next to the drill press in the Segway shop. It's handy, though both have about the same throat depth so if a piece can be drilled on the drill press, it could be tapped on the drill press. The problem is the shop is open and things get misplaced.

At home I chuck the tap, run it in (hand turned) until it's near or just at slipping, open the chuck and finish with a tee handle wrench over the trash can, or a tap wrench like this on the mill which has only 3" of spindle travel.

I forgot to mention that the work presses against the flat top side of the bench block, not the base recess.

jsw

No, just unsatisfactory or tedious. In college I built the filmmaker a

The camera shoots movie film one frame at a time as you move the cartoons on the glass with the leadscrews to create motion.

Yes, I enjoyed the 1960's and learned a lot about getting along and working with some very exotic people, all while earning a chemistry degree. What a contrast!

I didn't say it worked! I just tried to file an edge off. The tap came with the kit, and I suspect they sent me the cheapest one they could find.

Next time, I am getting brand-name taps for anything that important. I barely salvaged the operation, my next step was going to be silver-soldering the guide in place if the screw didn't "bite" in the hole. I got lucky for an inexperienced metal-worker. I spent my high-school years in the wood shop, I guess a metal shop tour one year wouldn't have hurt.

Yup! I see why you said that now.

It's not a pleasant sound, is it?

I didn't go to the range yesterday (I try to avoid weekends, when the chance of some idiot shooting you by mistake increases). I'll probably go later this afternoon and put at least 100 downrange to see if there are any feed problems.

No. A friend, another mechanic back when I was wrenching for a living, would always yell out "QUICK! BACK IT OFF HALF A TURN!" whenever he'd hear a bolt snap.

I tried that but it was too late. The cheapie Irwin/Hanson tap I got at the local Borg worked just fine in that hole and finished up the rest without trouble. $3.69. I'll buy a real tap next time.

-- When we are planning for posterity, we ought to remember that virtue is not hereditary. -- Thomas Paine

(comparing Paine to the current CONgress )

Film at 11? Cool.

-- When we are planning for posterity, we ought to remember that virtue is not hereditary. -- Thomas Paine

(comparing Paine to the current CONgress )

That's why I hang around here. I learn something new daily. And I learned a helluva lot designing and building this CNC router.

I got -movement- last night! and will see if I can demo something today after installing the drive chains. I just came back inside after putting additional links in the fence between my daisies and the cows next door. They got about 95% of them before I found that they were sticking their heads between the barbed wire and the field fencing.

-- When we are planning for posterity, we ought to remember that virtue is not hereditary. -- Thomas Paine

(comparing Paine to the current CONgress )

That's what you get for buying potmetal taps made for limp wristed liberals. :)

Is that all you got?

Seemingly, he has nothing more productive to do with his time than to troll for "liberals" on the internet in the hope that occasionally, he might find someone who, instead of feeling sorry him, actually feels insulted by his childish behaviour.

Anyways, the best way to deal with taps is to make sure you are using the proper style of tap for the job...

--this takes a little research, but for the best results when hand tapping, usually you want to make sure and use what is (unsuprisingly) called a "hand tap".

These are easy to identify due to their rather long lead-in taper which provides for a very gradual engagement and also enhances the tools' ability to self-center.

Personally, I would suggest that next time, buy the proper size tap off of ebay, in the "hand tap" style; making sure it was made of HSS and by a company that has a long history in the manufacture of quality cutting tools.

Thanks for the tips. Sadly, the one they sent me looked nothing like that.