I miss shop class back in school where we learned to operate different tools to create projects using our hands. Watching your videos reminds of those carefree days. I enjoy watching your videos as they always teach me something new, even though I don't have a lathe yet.
45° cutting tools work brilliant on long thin shafts. Bigger cut but less chatter. Hey Richard you should use WD40 for tapping... trust me it's the best. Using oil.. once you turned the tap a tiny amount they are basically cutting dry. WD40 is so thin it keeps the tap "wet". it's no fun earning money for work that you lose buying taps. Use it also whilst drilling. You will be super surprised promise
I have never tried WD40 on anything thus far, I will pick some up. I have done this same job before and never snapped a tap, but thought I would share the mishaps this time around. I always appreciate advice from the top machinists, thanks!~ Richard
Yes Richard I do enjoy watching your videos, but much more than that I am learning from your experiences. From my experience (but none with stainless) I have found that the spiral flute taps work best by starting with them. They tend to curl the chip out of the hole and there is no need to back up and break the chip. Not sure what is happening if you start with another tap then go to the spiral. But I will bet you like those taps, I sure do.
First time I noticed. We have the same saw, LOL. It has done a lot of work including stock welded to the bed. Tough little beasty eh. Ahh, stainless. The king of piling up threads esp. It's the nickle that causes all the grief.Over the years I found my best friend for working difficult metals such as TQ100 and Inconel, , , , "Rapid Tap" is the slipperiest and best surface tension reducer I have ever found. I have "GUN" taps for the hardest and love the spiral taps too. They are designed not to have to continually back them up as well. They will produce a spiral coil that keeps itself clean. Throw the oil away and get a big jug of my saviour my friend.
I never tried Rapid Tap.....I babied the spiral flute since I was down to the last few holes and didnt want to risk breaking another...it was customer material. I would like to have all the bells & whistles other shops have as it pertains to cutting fluids but my budget for such stuff is really limited ☹️ ~ Richard
Sometimes a tap will break because a chip will get jammed in the flute of a tap. Something I have found is if I put candle wax in the hole before taping the wax will catch the chip and push the chip out of the hole as you tap. Especially in the case of smaller taped holes.
The taps that broke were well used doing this job twice previously...I should have replaced them as they werent cutting as well as when new...I blame me. May try it...I have candles :-)
Just my personal thoughts, I noticed you said you "spared us" the broken taps etc., I say that would've been the best footage to show! There's 10,000 videos of guys doing things successfully, the goofs(we *all* make'm) are the most interesting and how you overcome them.
The job took a long time, and didnt film it all.....the taps broke when the camera wasnt rolling or I would have included it. I like seeing stuff like that too to "analyze" why it happened. Thanks for your input RJ, much appreciated~ Richard
Im a fledgling machinist attending RU-vid unniversity so anything that illustrates and helps me understand fundamental machining principles is good for me. In the beginning of my studies I needed to be told what every operation was but now just watching simple operations like you demonstrated in this video is a great reinforcing help to me. Id heard stainless could be a bear and I learned the hard way about work hardening it. I guess you just have to plan on scrap and tool replacement when working on it. Thanks for sharing.
I was disappointed I scrapped the one 5" part, the long 32" one just got converted to the smaller ones so was salvaged. I have done this job 2 times before for this customer....my mistake was not replacing the taps before working on this new batch...taps wear out and are consumables....need sharp tooling for stainless.
Well since you already know how to get them out MP I will be sending my tap removal jobs to you! HA The customer has a machine shop actually but they dont even like doing these so send them to me, they said they have broken many taps and expect some waste...but I hate scrapping work pieces. I have never tackled a broken tap.....yet
Richard, great demonstration of technique. Thanks for the tool tip, I think that will help me. I managed to chip the carbide tool I was using because of my angle of approach. This will help me. Thank you. I am going to grind one up! Also, I didn't think of facing with the tool running along the axis of the lathe. I noticed an uptick in subscribers today and was surprised, but after watching your video I know why. Thank you for all the continued support Joe
I have faced using your method as well....there is no right or wrong way. I just have experimented enough to know what my lathe likes most and stick with it. Subscribers are always nice 😊
Richard, I completely understood when you said you can't tell which videos are going to be popular. My advice is to just be yourself and do what you like doing, and the people who gravitate towards you will be the ones you wanted in the first place. As for myself, I can't think of a video of yours I didn't like, so I say keep on truckin'.
Richard, one thing I see too many people on you tube doing incorrectly when tapping, is when they go to break the chip is they don’t go far enough back to actually break the chip. They only reverse slightly. When in reality they should be reversing at least far enough the the back side of the previous flute actually cuts the chip off. In the case of a 4 flute tap reverse at least a quarter turn. I’m just putting this out there so everyone knows.
While I’m not the most experienced in a machine shop, I have about 45 yrs. of drilling and tapping. I’m stilll learning the machineshop aspect from RU-vid creators like yourself!
Hi Richard good to here from you, and it's good to see the old girl get some you tube time. She feels like she has been kicked to the curb ever sense you got the mill. Lol. Good job. Not sure if you remember but in our past times of talking I told you that I was a welder by trade. When you have broken a tap off and you still have some sticking out of the piece that your threading you can weld a nut to the top of it and most of the time you can back the broken type out. I've done this many times. It will save your part most of the time. Good video.
You didn't use a broken tap extractor?? LOL Richard, I love your work. Still trying to get my equipment up and running. Have had my grandsons most of the summer. Great production work on the rollers, and the video. Nice band saw. You keep doing what your doing, we like it. Don't know how 92% of the viewers can watch without clicking the like or dislike button. You do good work.
I guess I am not paying the other 92% enough money! LOL Thanks for the kind words MP, some job shop work isnt all that exciting but like to share what I do ~ Richard
Spiral flute taps you do not have to reverse to break the chip and you are better off power taping it keeps a constant feed which helps to cut uniform threads and I break more handtaping and getting it in a bind cheers!
I'm not sure you really gain anything from facing with that tool geometry, if it's a 45 degree tool and your facing off a .035 depth of cut then it is actually removing around .049 a long the hypotenuse ( cutting edge ) which is more work for the machine. Maybe I'm missing something though never tried it.
My lathe likes it better than the traditional tool type I used to use for facing....which is what Joe was using. Just offering him an option......it was easier to just show him than explain it in a comment. Thanks for watching & commenting! ~ Richard
I think they are all made so hard that its is so hard not to break them that tungsten is the best way to go it wont just snap off like they always do . and get the tap deep enough and it will snap I have done it on mild steel as well take care buddy .
Why do you use tap holder on your lathe? Just put the tap in the chuck(or fancy mt collet of your choice if you have it ) and leave your tailstock untightend.Then you can ether power tap it or hand rotate the chuck.Same thing works for milling machine or drill press. As of what tap you should use : www.tapmatic.com/tapping_questions_tap_recommendations_for_specific_materials.ydev
My lathe doesnt have enough ass to power tap steel. I can do brass & aluminum tho. Certainly not stainless...thanks for the link Zumba....always appreciated :) ~ Richard
You dont need to power tap it .Do same thing that i told you and put a chuck key in chuck and use it as lever to rotate and tap,also put your lathe in high speed gear .(i think Steve Jordan?made a handle for that from bike pedalhe also cuts threads with it)I prefer to do it by hand when i am taping blind holes this way -powertap it just for trough holes. Stainless steel loves small speeds but high feed rates and plenty of cooling fluids. If you work a lot with stainless i recommend to get black oxside hss drill bits(dont know for modern ones but old are blast from the past -42 holes in ss thin sheet metal that ruined all other drill bits we had without sharpening) or hsscobalt(M35 is 5% m42 is from8-10%) . banggood has cheap but true cobalt-good quality i use them myself (but its metric) www.banggood.com/15pcs-1_5-10mm-HSS-M35-Cobalt-Twist-Drill-Bit-p-1096838.html?rmmds=search&cur_warehouse=CN
Not sure....never questioned them on it...but this is the third time I have done this job and hadnt broken any taps previously. I generally dont try to sway the customer into what is "easier for me". If I saw how they were used in the finished product I might could offer some suggestions on a better way to approach simplifying the machining. Thx for your comment ~ Richard
Hi Ricard, Nice video! Some of the best taps I have used are OSG Hy Pro 7 www.nemic.net/default.aspx?page=item+detail&itemcode=3-2930801 These taps are great the A tap is better but cut much more. Steve
Thanks Steve, lotta great tips in the comment section on this one. Tried to call you the other day but ph# I had for you was no longer valid....shoot me a private message when ya can. Thx ~ Richard
