Bugger...

[Synce]

And for the next lesson we'll be talking about stabbing yourself in the hand with a steak knife because you were to lazy to go get a screw driver from the next room

Uhg, done it with a butter knife...that's even worse. Nice and dull makes for a good sawing action.

[kitatit]

Uhg, done it with a butter knife...that's even worse. Nice and dull makes for a good sawing action.

Haaaa! I'm not alone

Oh here's another tip.

If you are going to let a hot soldering iron roll off
the table don't walk back into the room
later in bare feet.....yep that lesson is
burnt into my...err foot.

Um yeah I'm not the academic type,
more of an experiential learner

[ltaudi1]

I too know the pain of tapping, My first optical bench was a 36" x 48" sheet of 1/2" Aluminum, after marking out my grid lines I proceeded to drill and tap 1,728 holes for 8-32's. Broke a few off, best way to get it outta aluminum is a good hard carbide end-mill smaller than the tap in a fast drill press or mill. Second way I know of is a swift crack with a hard punch and shatter it. Can mangle up material though, if not careful.

[norty303]

How do they tap many holes using machines? Do they just use very hard taps and drive them through with brute force, or do they have machines that do the 1/2 turn, 1/4 back but very quickly?

Or do they just 'grow' the metal with holes in like they do with cheeses?

[Synce]

Or do they just 'grow' the metal with holes in like they do with cheeses?

Hey! You might be on to something here.

[kitatit]

MMMM cheeeeese

It's been a while since I've seen a CNC but they use machine taps.
They look the same except the flutes where the swarf escapes is a spiral in stead of straight so the swarf is removed much more efficiently.

They still do snap taps from time to time if they get blunt or if the programmer misplaced a decimal point and the tool gets crashed.

One of my first jobs in my apprenticeship was removing snapped taps out of $60000
prototype engine blocks with a spark eroder....tedious but effective.

[Laserman532]

Had to stop play halfway through fitting my first 445 into my first projector today because I snapped my M3 tap off in one of the shimming blocks for the 445 mount....


Arsebiscuits. And the missus and nipper gets back tomorrow so it puts paid for any further work until next weekend now.... double arsebiscuits





Just had to get that off my chest.

Thank you

one word...oil

I know you know that, sorry couldnt resist,

a "stuck" broken tap can really ruin your day. My understanding is...if you broke the tap off in the hole and cant remove it, if you have the plate anodized the tap will dissolve??? Can anyone verify this information?

EDIT - o dang I should have read the whole thread. 300 evil said dip it in sulfuric acid...I thought I had heard of that before. But we have all been there...its no fun.

[300EVIL]

How do they tap many holes using machines?

Like this...


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gtYzh...eature=related

or

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RIXe8...next=1&index=9

[norty303]

Thats great! What I'm curious about is why couldn't you use one of those machine taps in a hand drill, assuming you have a way to keep it square? Are they horrifically expensive?


edit: answer, no! So why do we persist with doing these by hand?

[mixedgas]

somebody wrote:

QUOTE:
a "stuck" broken tap can really ruin your day. My understanding is...if you broke the tap off in the hole and cant remove it, if you have the plate anodized the tap will dissolve??? Can anyone verify this information? END QUOTE.
--------------------------------You wont get this one at SNOPES.COM---------------

If you take a piece of AL plate to be anodized and it has the slightest trace of remaining iron, the Anodizer will toss you out on your bum. Iron/steel catalyzes and kills most anodizing solutions.

Every time I'd send a piece out, I'd get the lecture.

Steve