At work this morning I was given the task of tapping 400 1/4"-20 holes through 1/4" plate steel. The holes were laser cut in advance. I grabbed 10 taps and started to get set up when I remembered a dusty old box at the bottom of the tooling cabinet that said tap head on it. Turned out to be a Tapmatic 50X
As far as I am concerned this thing is made out of magic. It might be lubricated with unicorn tears, i don't know but it is the coolest tool I have used in a while. I can't believe we have had it for over a decade and no one has bothered to use it. No one knew how to set it up. Took about 3 minutes of looking it over to figure it out.
I had allotted myself 7 hours to hand tap everything. I just got it done in 45 minutes. No broken taps either.
I think I might buy a drill press to dedicate to this thing.
Those are expensive too.
I could not imagine the thought of hand tapping 400 holes. In steel.
KJ
Yeah we had one of those at my old job. I never used it since I wasn't one of the machinist.
PHeller
SuperDork
6/1/12 12:32 p.m.
So how does it work?
You just use it as normal and it taps every hole reliably?
Thing is...a drill works by pulling material out of a hole, a tap works by cutting threads as spins in...so once this hit metal, does it pull itself in?
It pulls itself in and then when you push the quill up it reverses and backs itself out. The moment it is out of the newly tapped hole it starts turning the cutting direction again.
Like I said magic.
PHeller
SuperDork
6/1/12 12:40 p.m.
I bet its like clockwork inside that thing...Either that or oil eating little people that are happy your feeding them again...
tuna55
UltraDork
6/1/12 12:46 p.m.
That's a cool device!
I saw it done a different way once by a very good very old machinist. Mild steel, maybe a 3/8" hole. He chucked the tap in the mill, started it going forwards at normal speed, pulled it into the work, reversed the direction and pulled it right back out. Amazing talent and timing. I'd prefer a machine for me to do it because talent, I do not have.
Have you ever tried to tap holes with the tap chucked in the mill? There were a bunch of old guys working in a machine shop where I worked in in the mid 70s. I watched them do it and they explained it to me so I had a go at it. Worked fine, and never broke a tap. Pretty scary the first time I tried it though. You just have to gently feed it in, then reverse it and feed it back out.
In reply to Graefin10:
I have tap a few holes with a mill. It is exciting every time especially with Craftsmen taps (the world's most useless taps).
Enco says that is $800 worth of sorcery. Cheaper than paying you by the hour to bugger holes in plate by hand all day more than once I'm sure... but may as well be Unicorn giblets as far as my wizarding budget goes.
I've been in your shoes and I didn't have the Amazing Tapmatic so it took me all that time.
I think you could make a living just renting that thing out on this list alone and if you added the Locost list you could retire soon.
It's Swiss! There's probably a very specialized Cuckoo in the inner workings...
Probably made by Papa Schimmelhorn.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reginald_Bretnor#Papa_Schimmelhorn_series
I've used a tapping machine before but that gizmo is the tits. 
A short and unimpressive video of one in action
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ou9o-aUqAUI
The novelty didn't wear off in 400 holes for me.
much better video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3e8lfEbsLmg&feature=endscreen&NR=1
45 minutes on the mill & the rest of the day on GRM :)
KJ
Hal
Dork
6/1/12 2:13 p.m.
When i worked in the machine shop we used similar tools all the time. Used them on the automatic screw machines and on the turret lathes.
Put a drill in one socket on a turret lathe and one of those in another. Drill the hole, back out, index the tool holder and tap the hole. It took longer to put a new piece in the chuck than to drill and tap the hole.
This is called "working smarter, not harder".
I want one just for the name.
I really could have used one of those a few years ago when making Truss Bases.. spent a whole day tapping half inch holes in one inch thich aluminum plates... my arms were still sore the next day
Kendall_Jones wrote:
Those are expensive too.
I could not imagine the thought of hand tapping 400 holes. In steel.
KJ
I could not imagine the thought of hand tapping 400 holes. Period.
