Tapmatic Drill Speeder Lubrication

[awemawson]

I have a Tapmatic X125 'Drill Speeder' - basically an axially mounted gear box that multiplies speed by six times up to a maximum of 15,000 rpm. I used to use it with my Bridgeport Interact to drill PCB's as the tiny drills need high speed. I also used it for engraving.

Recently I've dug it out of the cupboard to change the shank to CAT40 for use on the Partsmaster for the same applications and thought it'd be a good idea to re-lubricate it. However there seems no provision for this, nor is there any reference to the device on the Tapmatic web site that I could find (I've emailed them but totally unreasonably they are not working on New Years Day !)

Has anyone any knowledge of these devices?

Andrew

[John Stevenson]

Andrew, can't help you with the lubrication as both mine, 4:1 and 6;1 have spring loaded oilers but they aren't Tapmatics.
However think you might be interested in the way i have mounted mine.

Usual Int 40 taper but i have repositioned the homing switches on the Z so the quill sticks down 1/2" all the while, there is a clamp fits to this that hangs down and a pin screws into the tapping head to do away with the floating bar that sees to foul everything except stopping the head rotating or knocking paint off.

Mine you as i type this I realise you have an ATC and no quill ? no what I have done may not apply in part to you ?

[awemawson]

Yes John, as you say I have a tool changer so that nifty trick is out of the window 

I had a nice email exchange from a chap at Tapmatic today. He says he eventually found the device in their archives dating from the 1970's  He reckons that after 500 hours use it needs stripping down, examining for wear and re-lubricating sparingly with a high melting point grease. It's certainly done nothing like 500 hours whilst in my tender loving care and in all honesty I can't remember where I got it from 

(Probably eBay - I buy most things there  )

Andrew

[AdeV]

As it's clearly useless without an Interact 1 Mk2 stuck up it's rear end, I suggest that instead of simply throwing it away, you lob it in my direction where I will put it to good use (ironically, drilling PCBs until I can fix my Micromat drilling machine....)

YKIMS 

PS: I could even modify it as per John's suggestion, no automagic toolchanger shenanigans here!

[awemawson]

In your dreams Adev 

Andrew