Drill & Taping ----(Not Rocket science)

[BIGMIG]

Drilling and taping a hole is not rocket science,anyone can do it with a little care and the right stuff.I would reccomend that you buy a cheap little tap and drill chart at allmost any good hardwhare store.This will tell you the proper size drill to use for each tap you may wish to use.Taps are very inexpensive--for small size taps---2 to 3 dollars each.I'll post a picture below of a good little tap holder that will work for a variety of tap sizes---They sell for around 4 to 7 dollars and will do the job for most hobby size taps.

One thing as I go on==="If you take good care of your tools,they will take good care of you". Allways use a clean tap,an old tooth brush works great to clean a tap before using it.After drilling and then starting to tap the hole it is important to keep the pressure equal
over the tap with your hand,don't twist off to one side or you will snap off the tap.Taps are amazingly strong if you don't put pressure off to one side of them.

If you are taping a through hole and have access to the part of the tap that has allready passed through what ever your taping,brush it off before backing it back out.A through hole is allways best if you can do this,even though you may not want or need to tap all the way through the hole.If you are taping a blind hole that does not go all the way through,be cautious that you don't bottom out the tap real hard as it my get stuck (then you have a
real problem)

One of the harder things to tap that has given me the most problems is one of the softer materials===(ALUMINUM). This is one case if you can get at the back side of what you just taped,to brush it off before backing out the tap.Taps like to try and gather up the cutings they just cut out on the way in and try to pull this stuff back out with them on there way back out,thus reuining the threads you just tried to cut.I use cutting and taping oil when i do a lot of my taping,however this may not be all that neccassary or something you will need for taping a few holes.You can use a little shot of WD-40 or any light oil.                              GOOD LUCK and hope this will help.
                                                                                                      BIGMIG 



NOTE===If you start screwing in a bolt and it seems like it is going in to hard or you notice it is going in crooked, "STOP".Back it out and look at the thread,if it looks dammaged at all throw it away and try a new one.If it also trys to go in crooked also,the threads in the taped hole are most likely dammaged.The proper thing to do next is get a tap of that size and run the proper tap back into the hole and it will most likely still be OK.This is what most guys call chasing the thread. 

[971wright]

use parrafin on aluminium it works alot better than wd 40 but if you dont have any use wd 40




regards pete

[Matdragon]

nice hint their thanks BIGMIG !!

cheers,

Matt

[fv432]

thanks for  that bigmig and a great how to and heads up

[tankman]

O Bu@@er wish I had read this last night BEFORE I tried to tap my aluminium Panzer IV rear idler adjuster arm for a 3m grubscrew to lock in the idler wheel screw >:(  . I will try the WD40 idea on the other side when I get back from holidays ( and make a new part for the knackered one ). Forget the last sentence tried it on my HL Tiger 1 metal swing arms this morning worked a treat 16 perfect tapped holes and the wheel shafts now nice and tight in there arms ( Just like a Tamiya LOL ). Now the old girl can be stripped down for cleaning / maintainance with ease. GREAT TIP BIGMIG ( as are all the others ). All the best guys and keep them comming
Alan     

[Miggers]

When running a tap through your material,always go one complete turn then a quater turn back to break the swarf.
Especially important when tapping HC steels(don't ask how I know,turn,turn,ping,shyte!!).

Taught this in my early days of engineering(many,many moon ago )

Mark

[Airburst]

Wd 40 should never be used for tapping . Its more of a cleaning and penitrating type oil. Not really made for lubrication.
A drop of clean 10w30 oil or a machine oil would work the best for tapping. There is also available special tapping oils made
for tapping aluminum,brass and other materials.
Hand tapping is such a pain!


Airburst

[BigPanzer]

For tapping small holes I find that an old Meccano pulley wheel with a rubber tyre makes a better tap holder than a bar type. You will need a longer screw than the standard grubscrew they come with for very small taps.

Using one of these seems to give more "feel" when cutting the thread.

Peter