Gallery, Projects and General > How do I??

Tapping a lot of holes

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Brass_Machine:
So I have a project coming up that is going to involve tapping a lot of holes. Think minimum of 600 holes... Plus maybe (more than likely) 3 to 4 times that and then some further down the road.

So the big question... what is a good way to do this? I really don't want to tap these by hand, but I don't have the CNC capabilities.

Maybe something like this Tapping Attachment?

Ideas? Help?

Eric

bogstandard:
Does that include the drilling as well Eric? The reason I ask is that you can buy taps with the drill point already on, so it drills and taps in one go. Not the cheapest of things, but something to consider if you are going into production. Basically you are halving the production time.

For power tapping, those auto heads usually work very well, about 5 to 10 seconds for full insertion and extraction by hand feeding. I have never used them with a drill tipped tap but I don't see any major issues.

But highly recommended are good quality taps and cutting fluid.

Of course, it all depends on material and tap sizes being used.

If I have say 50 to 100 small items to be tapped, from 3mm to 6mm size, in up to 10mm thick mild steel, I will use my battery powered portable drill. As shown on my faceplate here,

http://madmodder.net/index.php?topic=422.msg1041#msg1041

Tedium is the main killer when tapping so many holes manually.

John

usn ret:
Eric,  we need some more info: material, thread sizes, hole patterns etc. as much info as you can provide. Some ideas to consider: HF is a good place to start for price and quality comparison.  HF at the bottom followed by Enco. Grizzliy, Penn Tools, Travers up to and including  $$$$$$.00. :bugeye: Keep in mind that you will probably be using this tool again on the follow-on projects, therefore get the best you can afford as it will pay you back in reliability and ease of use. John's suggestion to use drill-taps is a good place to begin. If you are able to use the mill and use fixtures and jigs to enhance repeatability and reduce setup times.  A good lubricant and ridgid set-up will help reduce tap breakage. For using a battery powered drill I personally only use 2 flute taps to cut down breakage.

Cliff :coffee:

gilessim:
Eric, many years ago in the UK, I sometimes gave a hand to a guy who had a business making brass earth wire connecting blocks, like the plastic "chocolate block" type but solid brass instead, each with 5 holes across and 5 pairs of 1/8" tapped holes on top for the screws that clamp the wires, they were held in hardened steel jig boxes, first drilling all the holes, then tapping with a small (very old) tapping machine that looked like it worked on the same principle as the attachment from your link, I was paid 25 pence for each one and going at it hard ,I could do 1000 in an 8 hour day, 10,000 tapped holes!, very boring (no pun intended!) but £25.00 was quite a lot in those days so it was worth it!, we used to have to change the drill bits quite often but I can't remember how long the taps lasted, anyway the tapping machine worked a treat and never broke down as far as I can remember, so I would give that one a try, it looks like a good price!

Giles

John Stevenson:
I have tried the drill taps and to be honest not had much success with them.
If you look at one because they need to clear the chips they have larger than usual flutes which makes them weaker.

Another point is optium drilling speeds and tapping speeds are different so you have to compromise, usually running slower and hence the chances of breaking a drill / tap which is more expensive than either a drill or tap.

Last point is the tapping attachment whist very good are not really positive in location , they do have headache which allows the tap to follow the hole. That means the drilled hole is also not positive. If restricted to sheet metal work or similar the drill taps seem OK but I have found they are not commercially viable on long runs.

I often do long runs and believe it or not good taps last longer then drills and it's quicker to tap a hole than drill it. I often CNC drill holes and power tap with an articulated arm tapper and the tapper is always waiting for the CNC.



This is what I use, the frame is homemade and the head and collets, in the red box, are Chinese imports. Tap breakage is virtually nil now, you can belt a M4 tap into a blind hole in alloy until it stalls, then back out because each collet has it's own clutch.



Which is just a couple of belville washers keeping the two drive balls into mesh, over load these and the balls pop out.

JS.

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