Need help with Tapmatic

Calvin Robinson

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.
 
Hope this helps.

TAPPING SPEEDS Material Tapping Speed (SFM)
Aluminum 90 - 110
Brass 80 - 100
Bronze 40 - 60
Copper 70 - 90
Copper-Beryllium 40 - 50
Inconel, Hastalloy,Waspalloy 5 - 15
Iron-Cast 65 - 75
ron-Malleable 30 - 60
Magnesium 90 - 110
Plastics 60 - 90
Steel-Cast 30 - 40
Steel-Free Machining 50 - 80
Steel-Chromium 25 - 40
Steel-Alloy 20 - 35
Steel-Stainless 15 - 30
Titanium 10 - 25
Zinc-Die Cast 80 - 120

Titanium is 'gummy' so high relief taps and MollyD should work at 10-13 sfm. I don't know what that translates to on your drill press but on mine it's 950 rpm. That speed has worked well for most stainless steels and titanium I've done.

Rudy
 
Brian Fellhoelter taught me this, and it works awesome for me. I run thread-forming 2-56 taps at about 500rpm in 6al-4v Ti, and use Moly-dee cutting fluid. I don't tap a ton of holes... but I can say that I've never broken a tap this way. In fact, I'm still using the same OSG tap that I started with.
Erin
 
Thanks for the help guys I'll try these suggestions. What size tap drill for 0-80 in titanium, I've been using #56.
 
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 two....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,
 
Last edited:
EdCaffreyMS said:
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,
Click to expand...
Thanks for the avice Ed, I'll probably break a few more taps trying to get this thing dialed in.
 
Well I tried the 0-80 tap in titanium again this morning, using the suggestions I got from ya'll and it worked! I slowed the drill press down to 650rpm and adjusted the clutch to the light side of the 0-80 setting and tapped 3 holes in less than 30 seconds, in titanium! I love this thing!
 
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.
 
Fellhoelter said:
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.
Click to expand...

Great advice and I appreciate it, got to get me some of those thread forming taps, all the taps I have now are for hand tapping.
 
Fellhoelter said:
Personally, I don't even start trying to use cutting taps until #4
Click to expand...

I just went to the MSC website to look at threadforming taps and of course there are only 10,000 to choose from in the size I want, 0-80. Since I know very little about these things could you recomend what to use for Titanium and stainless steel in these small sizes? What type of material, coating ect., ect., ect.?
 
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.
 
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