Vertical Tapping Machine

[mikegolding]

I have used one at a previous employers . It was made by s & l maskin with 3 arms carrying different sized tapping heads. One about 3 to 6 mm the next 6 to 12ish and the largest about 12 to 20mm. Each arm had two parallel linked sections one going up and one down like this https://www.picclickimg.com/00/s/MT...ing-machine-pnuematic-articulated-arm-_57.jpg . If making one keep everything as rigid as possible as the arms tend to bend when tapping due to torque and your threads may end up out of square.

 

[northwest]

Well, this sprouted legs.
First off, I think it is important that I make the actual bracket holding the tapping head interchangeable, if something "better" turns up I want to be able to use it. I shouldn't have looked at Aboms video, I now want the ability to fine tune the head, something not in my original plans. Rigidity is the key but as I have said, 8mm would be a big hole for me to tap so I have a bit of leeway on the structure but if I machine from solid, this will give me a good foundation and a good bit of rigidity.
See how I get on.

 

[Keith 66]

Never seen one of those, I used to have a combined drill & tapping machine built by Herbert, Floor standing about 7ft high. It turned up one afternoon on my mates scrap lorry.
"Any good to you? £15 & its yours", We wheeled it into the workshop stood it up & wired it up, worked perfectly!
54rpm in lowest gear with auto reverse switchgear linked to the operating lever. There was no stalling that so you made damn sure whatever you were drilling was clamped down well. Wish i still had it.

 

[henry Kadzielski]

but as I have said, 8mm would be a big hole for me

Be carefull what you say, 8mm today, 12mm tomorrow and 20mm the day afterwoods.
I have a tapping chuck that is supposed to do 20mm, I think (never tried but I do 18mm). Push/ pull down till the thread starts, lifting the lowering arm /quill and she reverses perfect. When I do some hollow bar, they require 6, 18mm threads 40mm long and do 10 at a time. I now have a floor drill with a tapping function. Pull the lever that advances the quill, thread starts, let it go till the depth stop is reached and it reverses automatically. Now that is the bees knees, I can drill them and tap them without taking them out of the indexing head

 

[northwest]

Be carefull what you say, 8mm today, 12mm tomorrow and 20mm the day afterwoods.

LMAO, you are not wrong. The first hole I will probably do with it will want to be 18mm or something similar! No, seriously, although I do biggish holes once in a while it is small stuff that is my bread and butter. I do lots of 6x48 holes and they need to be spot on so another thing prompting me to have one of these machines.

 

[graffian]

It turned up one afternoon on my mates scrap lorry.
"Any good to you? £15 & its yours"

A mate was buying some machines at auction and included was a little vicky vertical mill and a tapping machine.
Rather than call a scrap man to take them away he called me and asked if I wanted them rather than the few quid he owed me.
The tapping machine was a sturdy looking pillar drill with a face/cone clutch[well that's what I guessed it had] pull
the lever down and it went one way pull it up and the spindle went the other way.

 

[Keith 66]

The Herbert's reversing was electrically controlled with the rod off the operating lever running through a large switch gear case on the side of the head, very similar to the Dewhurst reversing switch often fitted to small lathes except Quatermass sized. It may have had a clutch but i never took it apart!

 

[R-D-R]

This could be a nice project, I had 30 m10 holes to tap on my last project and got thinking about a tapomatic until I googled the price. Nothing like this justified for my home efforts but I like them.


I was thinking a powered tapping head in either a plunge router type configuration or mag drill type thing would be useful.

 

[Carl Wilson]

It looks like it will be an interesting project, I'm looking forward to seeing how you get on. I tend to just use the methods other people have already stated, i.e. tap in the lathe or use tap follower in mill or pillar drill chuck. For hand stuff I usually make a tapping guide or use one I've made before.

 

[Dr.Al]

I'm looking forward to reading about this one. I'd not come across this type of tapping machine before.

I made Harold Hall's hand tapping stand recently, which I've used for a few small (M6 or smaller) threads so far and it works very well.

My mini-mill (Sieg SX3) has a built-in tapping function (switch it into tapping mode and the green buttons on the end of the spindle downfeed handle switch the spindle direction very quickly). After being very nervous of it at first due to the risk of tap breakage (it can put a lot of torque through a tap), I now use it all the time for anything M5-M12. If the hole has just been drilled on the mill it's a very nice way of being sure that the tap will be perfectly centred and aligned with the hole. For the smaller threads (M5 & M6) I hold the tap in a drill chuck - it's then more likely to slip than break. For the bigger ones I use a collet chuck. I tend to wimp out and use a spring centre and tap handle for anything M4 or smaller. Having the mill's tapping function was a godsend for all the blind M8 holes I made in this piece of aluminium.

I'll look forward to seeing lots of pictures as the build commences!

 

[northwest]

Well, most of the bits together now. The tapping head arrived this morning and it is just as well I held out before ordering the gas ram as it is much heavier than I thought. Always best to get the bits before drawing it out:



Big block of ally, two very heavy wall pieces of box, packet of thrust washers and the tapping head itself. What could possibly go wrong?

 

[Parm]

Well, most of the bits together now. The tapping head arrived this morning and it is just as well I held out before ordering the gas ram as it is much heavier than I thought. Always best to get the bits before drawing it out:

View attachment 233351

Big block of ally, two very heavy wall pieces of box, packet of thrust washers and the tapping head itself. What could possibly go wrong?

It could just end up as a pile of swarf?

 

[northwest]

It could just end up as a pile of swarf?

So,you have seen some of my work.

:-)