Machinist and sculptor Chuck Girard stops by to share drill and tap tricks with sculptor Kevin Caron. He shows Kevin the right way to create screw threads in metal even if you only have a home shop.
Well I certainly learned something today , thanks guys . I never would have thought to manually turn the chuck while applying pressure with the wheel . Great info
wow what a great trick .i am so glad i found this video.all this time i have trying to tap a straight hole by hand,and the drillpress was right next to me
Excellent tip. I have always tapped by hand with my drill press sitting right behind me on another work bench. Next hole I have to tap I'm trying this. Thanks!
With practice its easy to tap square by hand. The human eye is easily good enough to determine squareness for most uses. When I worked in engineering everyone tapped square by eye. The most important thing is to have a developed concept of squareness and flatness in your head. Plus, also if you want a drill to cut size you need to use a pilot drill (about the same size as the chisel edge on the finish size drill, or a little bigger) run the pilot at least twice as fast as the main drill and it will not take any longer to drill both holes. The positioning, size and roundness of the hole will be greatly improved.
Kevin, followed your directions on tap tips and they worked perfectly...thanks a lot. I know my elves will love not having to tap toy by hand any more. Santa Walt
Another thing you can use if you can't align something with a mill or press is a tapping block with different size holes for whatever size tap you are using.
On pipe tap,go 1/2 way of length of tap,screw fitting in all the way down. count the turns screwing out.2 1/2 turn rule, easy does it finish tapping. 3/4 length of tap will get u there . remember size dies not matter.
hey good video . I was wondering did you ever make the other video showing the tool for centering your tap handle in the drill press I seem to not be finding it. my father taught me this trick along time ago but some guys don't have father/mother or that type of father/mother so thank you for the video. you might take some time also to talk about the drill bits like there is fractional but also numbered and lettered bits if you have and I missed sorry. you keep making the videos and I will keep watching and I did finally subscribe.
I know little to absolutely NOTHING about tapping, which is why I'm here, but even I know you would never turn on the drill to tap some threads. Unless of course you don't actually want usable threads in the end, or of course unless your drill press turns at about 2 RPH, which I very much doubt anyone's does. With that said, I have a question. I realize this video was posted long before color TV's were invented, but hopefully whomever posted this video is still alive, and can maybe give me some advice. I have a brand new table saw with a cast iron top. However, it came with really poor quality stamped steel wings, and I want to install cast iron wings. Unfortunately the saw manufacturer doesn't make cast iron wings for this saw, so I had to purchase another manufacturers cast iron wings. Low and behold the holes don't line up. I know, SHOCKER, right? So to make the wings work, I need to drill hols in the sides of the saw top to match up with the wing's holes, and then tap those holes with threads. How can I go about doing this while ensuring that everything, the holes and the tap, end up "perfectly" straight, on a table saw that I certainly can't put on my drill press, and I can't flip the saw onto its side? The surfaces I need to drill and tap are vertical and only about two inches wide, so I don't how how to get straight holes drilled and straight threads tapped in.
Well to start off, yes, we are both still alive! And running the drill like that did work very well! I was amazed to tell the truth. But sadly, I have never tried to tap cast iron. If I had to do what you are looking to do I would get a piece of scrap cast iron and just give it a try. Should not be an issue to drill the holes if you have good sharp bits to use. Just start small and step up to the correct size. Don't forget to use some kind of cutting fluid with the bits as well as the taps. Go slow and you should be just fine. Thank you for watching and posting and please let me know how it turns out.
Nope, you will turn the 1/2 20 in about a 1/4 turn and it will stop. If you try anymore it will seize in the hole and you will ruin the 1/2 28 threads. Get the right size and thread bolt for the hole.
@kazl1m The proper tool makes the job go so much faster and easier. You must have the tools you need to do the job at hand. Otherwise you will learn bad habits from trying to make do with the tools on hand. At least that has working in the past for me.......
ummmm I tried this at home worked perfect...... Untill I started my drill press up and shot the chuck key into my forehead..... oy that hurts...... Practice Safety Never Ever leave a Key in the chuck even for a minute, When your hand leaves the chuck the Key should be in it...... Sorry Old shop teacher here......
Very nice tips, Could do without the "wife" in the back ground asking redundant silly questions. She will not be tapping anything soon, so SHUT-UP! LOL
