Recommended lubricant for tapping small holes in brass

I've always had the best results tapping dry...but I know other guys in the trade use turps or white spirit.

Regards,

Dry has worked for me too.

Regards, Tony

We keep a squirter thingy full of WD40 for those sort of non-ferrous jobs, mostly in extruded ali, but we do a bit of brass or gunmetal occasionally.

Peter

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Peter,

Is it called an aerosol? :)

Or are you buying in bulk, I did not know that you could.

Mike

non-ferrous jobs,

Buy a 1 gallon ( sorry 5 litres ) container from RS and they usually come with a hand operated squirter

AWEM

That's the one, our local nut & bolt place does that deal as well, and it is a LOT cheaper to buy a gallon (or 5 litres!) than the aerosols!

Peter

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Use a sharp ( new ? ) tap

If you are drilling the holes in a press drill or mill, use the chuck to start the tap straight in the hole.

try a prayer to lady luck :-)

Seriously think about using roll form taps. These are virtually solid taps that deform the thread into shape. You use a larger size tapping drill as recommended. The nice thing about these as they don't have any flutes and so are a lot stronger

-- Regards,

John Stevenson Nottingham, England.

Visit the new Model Engineering adverts page at:-

Question from a USA lurker:

Do you know if these roll form taps go by any other names? Never heard of them, and they sound like just the thing for me.

Thanks

Soames

"Never mind world peace, visualize using your turn signal"

"Roll taps" will usually find them - since I've tried these I've found them great, but I haven't got the smaller sizes, my smallest is M6 X1mm

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