Tapping

Wayne Coe

Forum Owner - Moderator
A week ago or so there was discussion about tapping holes. One post suggested a tool at www.use-enco.com. I hadn't been to Enco's site in quite a while so checked it out. I saw that they have combination drill/taps so ordered the ones I needed. 1/4 20 and 1/2 13. Today I used the 1/4 20 to tap 64 holes in less than an hour. The taps have spiral flutes and expel the chips better than straight flutes. I messed around for a while trying to use the tap chuck that I also got from Enco for use in a drill press. I was drilling the holes to be tapped with the drill/tap and accidentally got into the tap area. Amazingly it worked just fine and did not break the tap. I have the drill press set on it's slowest speed. So I was thinking, this is great, but a problem backing the tap out. Then I thought about my Mill/Drill (which has a reverse). I set it on it's slowest speed and drilled and tapped out all of the rest of the holes for that run. I really recommend these drill/taps after working with them today. They guarantee that you are using the correct size drill and both the drill and taps are really sharp. This is not a "speed tap" but sure was better than anything else I have tried.

Of course, this may not work for those tiny holes and taps you folder makers use but for my Grinder Kits it seems perfect.
 
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