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  #46   Spotlight this post!  
Unread 29-11-2014, 13:30
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Re: One tool/machine to level up a moderate shop

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Originally Posted by techhelpbb View Post
One tool I thought I wouldn't need much but I ended up getting for Team 11 was a tapping head.

At some point we had this idea to drill *lots* of holes into aluminum and tap them instead of using rivets.

We have Haas CNC lathe and mill but the rigid tapping feature is over $1,000 after it times out. Not to mention the tap holders and hardened taps.

You can still get tapping heads and at that, tapping heads for CNC machines.
So I grabbed a couple of old Tapmatic NC. We still need to make an interlock plate for the face of the Haas spindle but once we do we can tap in the Haas mill with it and it even works with the 10 tool changer. Then if something happens to the Haas mill we can tap in the manual mills with the same tapping head. If we have no milling machines there's always a drill press with the same tapping head (you put the interlock bar against the post of the drill press). All the interlock does is hold the body of the tapping head from spinning.

So since this tool can easily be gotten for cheap and can be gotten to work on a drill press. If someone envisioned lots of tapping (say for tool plates or Erector set parts or something like that) it might be handy to have around.

No idea what a tapping head is, watch this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gtYzhlKFbjA
I would check out the procunier tapping heads (same as in the linked video) - they're expensive new ($500-700) but are pretty easy to find on ebay for ~$100-200. Make sure it includes the collets, since those run ~$20-30 each.

The 1E model covers #0 to 1/4" taps, and the 2E covers #8 to 1/2" (in aluminum). You can find them with 1/2" straight shanks or morse taper shanks. I used the 1E model, it struggled a bit with 1/4" taps but the clutch was probably adjusted a bit too low. I would probably try a pick up a 2E since we didn't use it for anything smaller than a #8.

The CNC part is probably not relevant to the OP, but as an aside, pretty much any CNC mill should be able to tap threads using a "floating" tap holder.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g5lrphpqUCY
http://www.maritool.com/Tool-Holders...duct_info.html

One of the main benefits of rigid tapping is that you can put taps in any normal "rigid" toolholder (ER commonly), so you do end up saving some money that way.
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Unread 29-11-2014, 14:24
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Re: One tool/machine to level up a moderate shop

Quote:
Originally Posted by techhelpbb View Post
We have Haas CNC lathe and mill but the rigid tapping feature is over $1,000 after it times out. Not to mention the tap holders and hardened taps.
You might be able to talk Haas/your HFO into giving you that option at a discount/free.

The math may still work out better for having the tapping head to use off machine in a drill press, but you don't need any specialty holders/taps for CNC use. Any run of the mill tap held in an ER or TG collet (or whatever your collet of choice is) works fine.
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  #48   Spotlight this post!  
Unread 29-11-2014, 18:44
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Re: One tool/machine to level up a moderate shop

Quote:
Originally Posted by scottandme View Post
I would check out the procunier tapping heads (same as in the linked video) - they're expensive new ($500-700) but are pretty easy to find on ebay for ~$100-200. Make sure it includes the collets, since those run ~$20-30 each.
Already managed to acquire the NC heads from Tapmatic with the accesories. The smaller has an ER collet the larger the rubber and metal blade design like in the video I linked earlier.

Originally all Tapmatic heads used that rubber and metal blade style collet.
As the ER collets worked their way into the Sherline, Taig and MaxNC world so did they work their way into the tapping head world.
So many of the newer Tapmatic designs have ER collets.

I have lots of different SAE and metric collets so this added accessory set of the ER collets, which has more pieces for the range of sizes, was not a huge deal for us.

I did run into the issue, as stated before, that nobody made the proper interlock bar for the Haas spindle we have. Neither Tapmatic nor their competitors. However tracing the mill spindle face on paper and making the part is a good project.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Cory View Post
You might be able to talk Haas/your HFO into giving you that option at a discount/free.

The math may still work out better for having the tapping head to use off machine in a drill press, but you don't need any specialty holders/taps for CNC use. Any run of the mill tap held in an ER or TG collet (or whatever your collet of choice is) works fine.
I haven't had any luck with getting that option for free. We also acquired recently an education version of MasterCAM. Had to cough up over $2,000 for those licenses.

I had given the school some of my BodCAD package licenses to hold and use at no cost but the other mentors were more familiar with MasterCAM so we went and got the MasterCAM. I am fine with MasterCAM and HSMWorks on the Haas personally as well. I had a few exposures to HSMWorks via Solidworks at places like NextFAB. I've used MasterCAM professionally. I've used BobCAD for my hobby work. I have quite a few older versions of BobCAD that I acquired from closing businesses at a large discount over the years.

I learned CNC on G/M code direct entry so for simple things I usually just need a terminal. I am so inclined to make my students work on my friend's retrofitted Bridgeport with the punch tape reader

Last edited by techhelpbb : 29-11-2014 at 18:50.
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Unread 29-11-2014, 21:14
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Re: One tool/machine to level up a moderate shop

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Originally Posted by techhelpbb View Post
I learned CNC on G/M code direct entry so for simple things I usually just need a terminal. I am so inclined to make my students work on my friend's retrofitted Bridgeport with the punch tape reader
With a little digging I think I could find a tape from an old school project that engraved my name. I can remember when mylar was the new thing.
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