Our team is building with a design that is inspired by the WCP Competitive Concept. We just noticed that the design is having us mount the ThunderHex to a Roller Center Plate (WCP-0105) with a 0.375" ID Flanged Bearing (217-2733) using a 5/16" L Shoulder Bolt (WCP-1060). BUT The ThunderHex hole is for tapping a 1/4-20 or 1/4-28 thread. We need to increase the bore to fit 5/16"-18 size and threading. Our team doesn’t have a lathe. We do have a drill press and arbor press. Also hand drills. Any recommendations on how to bore out the hex shaft before we tap it? Any recommendation on tapping kits would be great as well, otherwise will buy a $50-100 kit off of Amazon.
Hold it with a wrench and hand drill it out. On taps, most “kits” are sucky carbon steel taps. I buy HSS individual taps from McMaster. A 2-flute spiral point (not spiral flute) tap is nice for this application.
Thanks for the suggestion! Its personally been about 10 years since I last tapped something. Any thoughts on using a combined drill bit and tap such as this? Luckily we already have a mcmaster cart in progress Such a great vendor.
I wouldn’t. More expensive and easier to break.
Also helps to put a small chamfer on the hole before you start tapping with a countersink or something. Just helps the tap self center a bit more and remain straight.
I prefer these combined ones, but only because I can use the drill part as a pilot. I have tapped hundreds of holes with them using a hand drill. I would not use it to actually drill the hole though. I like the HSS ones from Dewalt and Greenlee.
Integrated drill/taps are very nice for thin Aluminum (1/8"), but WILL NOT WORK on deep holes. The problem is that the tap part forces the drill to feet VERY rapidly. Far more rapidly than it can handle. Plus, the flutes fill up with chips in a micro second.
That said, if you drill a REALLY deep hole in the shaft at the tap drill size you can use a drill/tap to follow the hole and tap it as square as your drilling job was. I would not reccomend this, though. Too easy to screw up.
You just want to drill out the hole to tap size, then tap it by hand. Just buy the one tap you need in high speed steel. Carbon steel taps are terrible…
This topic was automatically closed 365 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.