power hand tap

Tapping head and a drill press.

--Winston

Use aluminum (one of the softer grades) for the mounting plate, and put a roll-forming type tap (no chips to clog) into a cordless screwdriver with a comfortable F-O-R control so you can spin in and spin out without having to futz with a separate forward-reverse control.

You can tap with a drill or screw gun, for this sort of thread. I have seen it done and did it with 10-32 (my favorite thread). A while ago I acquired a Bosch electric tapper 1462VS, which is a more suitable device for this.

you can get away with steel just fine. You have an advantage of tapping thin shieetmetal.

i

A typical reversible cordless drill will tap small holes in panels almost effortlessly.

FWIW, 6-32 taps are the most likely to break, but if you can avoid using that size, the other sizes aren't particularly fragile.

I think combination drill-and-tap drills are available for the number sized threads, and would probably be worthwhile/effort-saving over using 2 cordless drills with separate drill and tap.

The back plate could be aluminum, but it should be of adequate thickness to provide reliable/secure attachment (thread contact area) of the components to be mounted to the plate.

The mounting screws for the various cabinet components could be the drilling-type, short, self tapping screws, with hex heads, that could be driven in with a cordless drill fitted with a magnetic hex driver.

Perhaps consider Greenlee combination drill and tap. Eg

or singles, or in sets,

or .

I've tapped lots of 8-32's in Hoffman back panels. Use two flute, use proper taping fluid, keep tap straight. Piece of cake. Nice thing is, if you do break a tap, the far end is there for you to use to remove broken tap.

Wes

-- "Additionally as a security officer, I carry a gun to protect government officials but my life isn't worth protecting at home in their eyes." Dick Anthony Heller

I've drilled and tapped thousands of 8-32 and 10-32 holes in NEMA back panels with gun taps in a pistol drill. A drill with a convenient reversing switch is a big help. The older Milwaukees with a long lever above the trigger are my favorites for power tapping. Solid tapping compound applied to the tap every few holes seems to help, without making a mess. Unless you're very careless tap breakage isn't a problem.

I wouldn't use aluminum unless it happens to be more convenient than purchasing a replacement back panel.

Karl...I use..for 90% of my tapping duties on Stuff..any decent cordless/corded Variable speed electric drill.

Period.

And Ive got mills, tappers etc etc etc.

And the hand drill gets the majority of your kind of work.

In act..you can buy a tap drill that drills the holes and then taps them..all on the same shank.

For sheetmetal use..they are GREAT!!!

Gunner

"Lenin called them "useful idiots," those people living in liberal democracies who by giving moral and material support to a totalitarian ideology in effect were braiding the rope that would hang them. Why people who enjoyed freedom and prosperity worked passionately to destroy both is a fascinating question, one still with us today. Now the useful idiots can be found in the chorus of appeasement, reflexive anti-Americanism, and sentimental idealism trying to inhibit the necessary responses to another freedom-hating ideology, radical Islam"

Bruce C. Thornton, a professor of Classics at American University of Cal State Fresno

Hope this comes across, I've known they exist but I have to tap a bunch of cable clamp attachments soon. I'm getting some.

Wes

-- "Additionally as a security officer, I carry a gun to protect government officials but my life isn't worth protecting at home in their eyes." Dick Anthony Heller

I usually use my cordless screw driver. It's a two speed with a smooth trigger and good speed control. I usually tap in low range.

But there is another trick when you are really concerned about breaking a small tap. You can find tape wrenches that look like this one:

the allow you to slip out the round T-Rod, and drive them with a 3/8" socket. I use one of these with a 3/8" speed handle for tapping delicate holes. Works quickly on small taps, mantains a good feel for the tap load, and without the possibility of loss of control. In case you are not familiar with a speed handle:

What a great idea!!! I have several tap wrenches, more than I need. They all have a round top, but I found one that was a press fit to a 13mm socket. I put it in the vice and squeezed. That socket ain't ever coming off.

Karl

Looks like a father's day present. I think I'm worth a whole set.

Thanks for the tip, I had seen these; but it had never registerred. They would save even more time in the CNC mill.

Karl

YMMV, but I've tapped thousands of holes with a reversible drill. Aluminum and carbon steels. Yes, broke a couple, but for the time saved, well worth it. I have a couple nice Bosch 3/8 drills with the reversing lever right above the speed control trigger. I don't find it terribly hard to give the trigger a quick bump, let off and reverse the direction, then apply power again to back the tap out. I've only done this with through holes however.... It's generally not too difficult to remove a broken tap from this materials.

BTW, I've tapped from 0-80 to 1/4-20 this way. Only a few of the smaller, at least a thousand 1/4" holes, thicknesses from 1/16 to 1/4"

Jon

Don't overlook rivet nuts

and Self-Piercing/Tapping Screws Many modern cordless drills have an adjustable tension setting which lets the chuck slip at a certain point.

N

Hi Ned -any further info on solid tapping compound? It sounds useful - maybe cake soap?

I've tapped a lot of panels, cordless drill is the bomb! I love the panasonics with about 20 clutch settings, you can even do 6-32's because you can set it to stall before snapping the tap.

Need to find some of that solid tapping stuff, is it a wax based product?

With bigger taps (10's and 1/4's), you can even run them surprisingly fast in the thin sheet of back panels.

Stuart

At my dad's company we would tap 1/4-20 holes into mild steel with two- flute taps driven by pneumatic impact wrenches. It's really fast.

Taps broke, but surprisingly seldom.

(It's been a long time, but I suspect the holes were oversize -- letter- series drill bits were for hoity-toity machinist wannabees; real men used fractional sizes).

Chuck an HSS 8-32 plug tap in an inexpensive air drill from HF with pushbutton instant reverse and have at it. Small air drills have enough torque to tap but not enough to snap an 8-32. Electric drills, corded or cordless, have considerably higher stall torque which is not a plus for tapping.

That's how they did it on Mark 46 torpedoes at Honeywell, though I'm sure the tool was not from HF. Many hundreds of holes per torp, zoop zoop. But I've done it with the HF tool, works great. Figure on about 2 seconds per hole. Apply cutting fluid with a squirt bottle. Use a good USA HSS tap, not carbon steel ala Craftsman or Vermont American.

Done hundreds of back panels with a cordless drill. I useually use 10 -

32 unless the component is small, then it's a 6 - 32. I'm surprised no one has mentioned these beauties - Lisle (LIS70500) 8 Piece Tap Socket Set. Work excellent with a 1/4" hex to square adapter.