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.PolyTech Forum website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.