uh-oh.

Godspeed

Well-Known Member
So im tapping some holes on a new forge i'm building with and 6-32 tap and wouldn't ya know it. TINK! the tap snapped off
pretty much flush with the hole. "no big deal" I thought to myself. I have another tap so I just moved the hole over a bit, and guess what?
TINk!! So I went out and bought another tap and proceeded to drill and tap 3 other holes with no trouble at all. So i go back to the first one and ... you guessed it! TINK! I had to laugh at this point. It's obvious that i'm having "one of those days" so i'm just gonna get back on it tomorrow. Anyone know how i could get all these out? Would it be possible to drill them out? Would one of those screw extractors work on something this small? Thanks... I just needed to vent. :sad:
 
They make a tap extractor but it depends on the tap and how it broke. Anyhow, I've never had any luck drilling them out, or using a screw extractor. The broken tap curse dwells in every corner of my shop. There are more broken taps in my junk steel pile than almost anything else.
 
The only way I have ever saved a hole once a tap is broken off inside it is to heat the tap with a torch to soften it, and punch it out backwards with a pin punch while its nice and hot. This does damage the threads in the hole but usually leaves enough to re-tap them, if it isn't a critical fastener. You might be able to anneal the tap, then drill it and use a screw extractor but I have never had any luck with that method.
 
depending on how deep your tap is (and if it snapped off, it's probably not very deep) you should be able to knock them out backwards with a pin punch.

If you have some of the tap peeking out of the other side, and there's enought to grab it with some vice grips, try to twist it out a little bit first.
 
As you already know, they are brittle. Use a small punch and when you start driving it out it will probably break up and then you can get the pieces out, at least that is the way that it has worked for me. You probably have the hole a little small. After you get the pieces out drill the hole with a larger bit.
 
Well, knocking it out with a punch wasn't an option for me because i was tapping into the wall of 1/4" wall tubing to put a cover plate on, so i was going into the wall long ways so the other side of the hole isn't accessible. what i ended up doing was sawing about 3/8'' off of it. I'm kinda nervous about trying again, it gets expensive! I even tried using small self-tapping screws, pre-drilled the holes, and guess what? the heads turned right off the screws! grrrrrrrrrr!!!
 
drill bigger? soften the material with a torch before tapping? more lube, smaller turns? I'm horrible at it myself, but usually don't break anything past #4.
 
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