Thanks... I think I'm going to try that. Someone I talked to says he thinks it is due to side forces, which will be eliminated with a taping head. I hope so. But it still feels like it's catching when I do it by hand though, so we'll see. It may very well be the aluminum.
Just out of curiosity -- is it possible that someone handed you a batch of titanium rods instead of aluminum? I would expect serious tapping difficulties with that.
And, BTW, I would prefer a two-flute gun tap to a three-flute one, especially in 6-32 size.
Good Luck, DoN.
Update: I got hold of a pretty decent tapping head. I tried it out today. It took a while to get the hang of it... I underestimated how much pressure you need to put on it going down. I wasn't helping through enough to start, and that was kind of screwing things up. But once I got the hang of it, I got through about 100 pieces no problem. It sounds stupid, but I actually just made a little holder out of a piece of wood, then two little pieces of wood glued on top to fit the round in-between. The whole thing can slide around and adjust, plus the sides hold them loose enough that they can adjust. I backed the torque off until it was disengaging, then put it a little above that. Unfortunately it doesn't look like I will be able to use the combo drill/taps on this drill, as there is too much run-out. But maybe on a different one some day. But I'm just happy to stop breaking taps at this point.
But anyway... Knock on wood, it looks like it's working. Thanks everybody for the help.
====== Its good to hear that somebody can still make something work. Should be on the national news. Did you apply for your stimulus funding yet? ;-)
Unka George (George McDuffee) .............................. The past is a foreign country; they do things differently there. L. P. Hartley (1895-1972), British author. The Go-Between, Prologue (1953).
I guess I jinxed it because I broke two today. If I back the torque clutch off as far as it will go and still be able to do it, they still break. So obviously there is some sort of inherent binding. I tried hand tapping a few with both a #36 size hole and also 7/64" hole. When examining I can see the tips of the threads are just slightly flatter on the 7/64", but they still seem to hold as well as the ones done in #36. But with the #36 I can feel there's a point where the tap just sort of hits a hard part where it doesn't want to go further. You can push it further, but that's where you start to feel like it could break. I think that's the point where they are breaking, because they're hitting that higher pressure point. On the 7/64" size holes, it is more of a constant pressure through, without the point where it binds. So I guess it will have to be 7/64".
OK, did like 500 today and didn't break a single thing. Woo hoo! I had to ream all of them up to 7/64" to do it though. Bottom line, the taps will simply not go through a #36 hole in one pass. I don't think it's me, I just think that's the way it is. Maybe it's an inherent thing with the 6-32 size and aluminum, or maybe if it wasn't going though
1/4" it would be better. But there's no way it will go through in one pass on a #36. You can do it by hand, backing it off, but that's it.Have something to add? Share your thoughts — no account required.
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