Calvin Robinson
Moderator Christian Forum
Can anyone help me with speeds for tapping titanium with my new Tapmatic? 0-80 and 2-56 is what I use mostly.
Thanks for the avice Ed, I'll probably break a few more taps trying to get this thing dialed in.The biggest key to being successful with a Tapmatic is having the clutch properly adjusted. If your going to do both 0-80 and 2-56, expect to spend some time "tinkering" with adjusting the clutch when you switch between the tow....and in most cases expect to break a tap now and then "tweaking" the clutch adjustment between the two. This is one of the reasons that I have pretty much gone with using only 2-56 screws....it means I only have to stock one set of "tooling", and don't have to fiddle with always adjusting the tapmatic clutch...which usually includes breaking a tap every now and then,
Here's how I do it.
Set the clutch too low, much too low.
Drill a few test holes in a scrap piece.
Tap the hole, if it doesn't go all the way through, and it shouldn't, increase the clutch tension.
Keep doing that until it goes cleanly through your hole on the first try, then go a touch more.
Now your torque isn't too high, and you'll know when the bit is getting old, because it won't go through anymore.
You can keep chasing the small ones up in tension for a while too.
I have never had a tap break in the tapmatic except due to operator error.
With threadforming taps in Titanium, you can get several THOUSAND holes out of one tap.
The threaded hole will become too small for a screw before the tap breaks if you do it right.
Personally, I don't even start trying to use cutting taps until #4
Thank you for your help, I'll get some and try them.I have good luck with the Clevelands from Enco (same coporation as MSC)
Buy 2 and get free shipping with code FSCAUG
As a general rule, I like uncoated, cobalt, with an H2 or H3 thread limit.