Making A TAP Follower - Should Have Made It a long Time Ago 

A four-jaw chuck sounds like a """fun""" project

One method I've seen when you need a centered through hole is to drill the hole first, then turn the outer taper between centers.

I like the reversible end feature. If you replace the grub screw with a small thumb screw you won't have to hunt for, lose, or misplace the wrench.

I used a tipped carbide burr as a tap follower recently, decided I’d power drive the tap out, pushed back and locked the tail stock, forgot I had the spindle speed set fairly high, so when I flipped the motor on, the tap started backing out exceedingly fast, I had my hand between the burr and the tap handle, and I drove the burr straight through my hand as it pinched on the back of the tap. Freaking out mentally, but keeping cool, hit the e-stop, unlocked the tail stock, moved it, looked through my hand and watched it for a few seconds until the blood started…thought goddammit! Shut the garage up went inside approached the wife doing the dishes, calmly began to tell her I’d put a hole through my hand when she looked at my hand and freaked out, which caused the the kids to freak out. Drove myself to urgent care, a cleaning and a Band-Aid later, all patched up, still some tenderness, fairly small scar, but dam it was stupid…lucky I had the tail stock as far back as I did or my entire hand may have gotten caught up by the tap handle.

Very nice, I think I'd have replaced the retaining grub screw with a counter sunk screw - that way you can set the screw length such that it is never trying to clamp the follower but will always retain the plunger as the head bottoms out in the counter sink first. And as concentricity is only really important at one end of the tool I think I'd be tempted to cut the taper the other way - that way the worst of any drill wandering would be in the spring part of the pocket and have no impact on the tool. (Assuming of course I actually thought of any of this before just doing it, and was confident enough I could cut the taper right without being able to test it.).

I've got to say man, over the course if all your videos, you're getting better and better at your craft. Love your work buddy

If you don't have blueing compound to tell your contact patches on a part you can use a candle to deposit a thin layer of soot on the outside of your part and then slide them together and check that way

Seems like every time someone wants to make a tool, having that tool already would be a great help in creating the tool. 😀

No ones design is better than anyone else's, That's the fun part about machining parts. Each custom tool is unique and fun to study and watch work.

I'm going to make one properly scaled for my machine. Nice simple design.

The trick I learned to tap straight holes in the lathe is to use a point to push the tap straight in the center of the hole. I use the tap handle as a rotation stopper and I pull on the chuck to turn the part while the tap is not rotating. That makes it easier for tight spaces!

Nice design of sprung centre, and well made, ref hardening the 2 ends, it only needs a few mm hardened and tempered. Thanks for sharing

It sounds like you already need new bearings for your new lathe. That's a pretty significant noise it is producing.

Smart idea to have concave and pointy ends of the following shaft. Nice work.

Love this design ! Making one for my PM 1130 V lathe with 3MT .. keep the videos coming ! You are definitely one of my top 3 utube machinists !

Dear Sir ,you brought back a lot of memories,my days as a machinist was way back in ‘60s an never touched one since,it was a rather large beast,a Herbert No 4..happy days 🇪🇸

Awesome make

Thanks for all your great video work. I am in the process of upgrading my 7x16 mini-lathe and really appreciate the videos you have produced about the subject. This video is also timely as I am planning to make a better tap follower than one I made when just beginning my hobby machine journey. Cheers!

When I was a first year apprentice I made a tap follower similar to this but for a Jakob's chuck. I also made a second tip which I bored out to use a die follower

Looks like the best design I have seen. Found my next project 😂 thanks!

Oh wow, it's crazy you got a guest appearance from This Old Tony at 3:05 !

Good practical design! And "easy to make" is worth a lot. 👍

So excited to see a new video. Keep going m8

Excellent design- well done!

Very nice. Thanks.

I can make that, The pointy not pointy end feature is cool beans Hardening it would also risk warping it and no one wants a bendy tap follower Thanks for sharing

That's genius, great job!

Brilliant 👍👍

Great project!

Good video as usual. We shared this video on our homemade tool forum this week 😎

Very nice making the follower double ended.

I like it a lot!

Nice work. I like the idea of the dual purpose tip. What it all boils down to is what you want to or capable to make as there are a multitude of different designs.

Really well done Sir.

Thanks for this video, it came out nicely! 👍💪✌ Cheers

Nicely done, I like the design.

Lol that vid opening. That was dadjoke masterful

Useful tool

Thanks !

Great Video thanks, Really enjoyed it 👍

Nice project.

I tried to take a zip of my beer every time you said Tap, I'm about 4 minutes in and soon out of beer, CHEERS 😅

Good job! The keep it simple attitude I like that. Great video.

Keeper! Nice work, great video!

Elegant design! I had decided more than a year ago, that if I ever finish my antique lathe, that one of the 1st projects would be an MTtap follower. Hadn't worked out the double points, or retention... Thanks!

First thing i ever machined! Still have mine, i definitely need to make a new one 😂

This is a really great design, great build. Thanks for sharing! I like the idea of using precision ground stock, it's quick and inexpensive.

Nice little project. I'm sure that with the hard work you'll be putting this tool through, if the point becomes "dull" you'll be able to "dust" a bit off and it'll be as good as new.

You might not want to say your design is better... but it is! I made a follower that clamps in a drill chuck or a collet chuck and takes most of the Z axis travel in the mill to use. I might be tempted to copy this design in the future. Thanks!

The hand pointer makes it!

Nice 👍🏼

Add a second grub screw to lock it all in place. 👍

nice!

Hey Sir i follow both you and "inheritance machining" .. it seems that you saw his video about the same topic.. Well done thou.. both of you ... WOW 🙂 love your projects

Nice design. I like how low profile it is for your machines.

great work, I think I'll subscribe

If hole was not properly centered, best thing to do would be remove chuck and fit into head-stock taper then bore slightly larger, either enough to clean up or well oversize and make sliding point to fit. You could have done that anyway to avoid drilling and reaming a very long hole that you knew you were going to drill oversize for most of it's length. Could also have made it with threads on outer end and made the cap to guide follower, (need a slight amount of extra length to have nut locate on shoulder to keep it concentric) that way it's much easier to change from a point to a cone. Unfortunately, that would go against the KISS principle 😁 (although a single 4mm grub screw is simpler) Any time you use coil springs stacked, you should use washers between them as they will 'screw' into each other in use

The bearings in the new lathe already sound like rocks 😮😢

I was hoping you'd knurl the cap. But I like the design.

If your 3 jaw isn't too far out you can dial in using different key holes and tapping the jaws the way you want it to move.

Интересная идея

Sneaking up on a hundred thousand subscribers. Show some more hacksawing and you should get there!👍👍

Nice looking tap follower, it's really weird but I made a follower today similar to the the one you cut in half, but I think mine is to a higher tolerance than that one. What does surprise me is you have a collet chuck for your tailstock and you are not using that to hold taps, you should try it, it works really well, I do this whenever I tap a thread on the lathe.

A spring with ~15 lbs per inch would maintain quill-pressure as the tap threads in. Edit: Ah ... pretty much like that device appears to have @3:25 (inside the device)

You should make a Hemingway tailstock die holder (with a clutch) its looks easy and safe to use on a lathe with the feeder on.

At work I simply used aluminium round stock to make a set of bushings with the right internal diameter and length, so that I can get the tap two or three turns in. Once you have a straight start it usually isn't much of a problem to keep it straight.

I still don't have a tap follower. In the milling machine I use the power taping function to cut it a few turns. In the lathe I turn the chuck by hand. Small diameter taps might hold in the drill chuck for bigger ones I use a collet chuck. With a straight start it is easy to finish it by hand with a tap wrench.

Love love love the channel. Thank you for making such intriguing content. Quick question. Are you not using your quick change tool holders for the mill anymore? If not, can you share why? I love the idea. I bought all the stuff to do one for myself, but haven’t had time yet.

EYE DUNT NU BOUT YEW

You should have place a washer between each spring.

An other way to check the fit of the taper by drawing 3 longitudinal lines 120 degrees apart on the taper with chalk then put the sleeve on it and turn 60 degrees and checking how the lines were smeared.

The little brush you're using with your parting tool. It looks like it gives diseases. Bad diseases. Diseases one does not simply recover from. Other than that: great content! :D

👍

nice build, should do the job nicely.

Someone get that man a new brush !

Looks great, though I was really hoping we'd get to see what the giant tap is for this week!

Personaly, I put an auto center punch in the Jacob chuck.

If you like this but cutting the Morse taper scares you then you can buy a blank Morse taper arbor and modify it.

You could put the taper in the lathe and then drilled the hole to have better concentricity

If you need your reamer to run true, bore the first 5mm of the hole to just under the finished size.

Have a drink every time he says "I don't know about you but'

I can hear the chattering you've got in your gearbox. I had it in my lathe 250 and it was being caused by the auto feed gearbox, one of the spacers was a 250um too thick and was causing too much intermittent resistance to the lathe and causing the gears to slap around in the headstock. I had an H&F technician troubleshoot it for me, might be a fun project, no auto feed, just use your lathe to fix itself.

I would have made a sharper tip so it fits better in the tap handle

HA, I just turned an M2 taper yesterday.

hey i just need to know, for the process of adding carbon to steel parts you use on your videos, can i use sodyum bicarbonate instead sodyum carbonate? also what kind of of flux you use for avoid the shrinking or warping of the material in the template process? is the one used for soldering brass with torch?

Very important item to have in the shop,,,,but the key way you make is not important for this project beside its allow the chips and dirt goes in the bore ❤

How much pressure does the tap follower push with? Maybe put some scales on the mill vice and lower the quill down to get a reading ?

Hey that’s a great project. Well done too ! I’m currently working on a new quill nut for my tail stock. It’s got some funky Left hand 5 TPI Acme threads, problem I just figured out is the internal threading bar is 12mm and it doesn’t fit in the hole ! It’s the smallest one I could find.. make a tap ?? Or make a custom 5 TPI Acme threading tool? What would you do in this situation?? Enjoy your videos man ! 🍻 from 🇺🇸 mate !

Been a keen follower of your channel and have recently purchase a lathe. Do you have a tap and die set brand recommendation to purchase in Aus? Something not too pricey but still decent value for lathe use? Cheers

I made a very similar tap follower. I also made a video of it. My videos aren't very good by the concepts I employ are unparalleled.

Could you not have foregone the cap on the end and just not drilled all the way through the piece?

Why do I get a This old Tony vibe.

doesnt your seig 2.7 mini mill have a tapping function?

Why didn't you turn the taper between points? It's a much easier setup and you may use the power feed. The only hassle I could think of, is to realign the tailstock after work.

What's that noise in your lathe? Sounds like a bad bearing or dry gears?

It’s kinda funny how the tool you want to make is needed to make the tool you want to make.

Mate is your other channel I did a thing?

9:03 i mean, if you hadnt destroyed the one you aleady had just to illustrate a point that could have easily explained with a pencil and a piece of paper...

Why don't you put your taps in the tailstock drillchuck and just power tap it? Like don't put the handle up for locking the tailstock in place and just let it slide, I do ich all the time 😊

Yo