Todays Project - What did you do today?

[TomG]

Walton tap extractors work ok on larger taps and on taps that aren't too tight. Using them on anything smaller than 1/4" or on a tap that loaded up and broke going in is probably going to be a frustrating experience.

Tom

[stevec]

I've gotta go along with Tom. And, I'm pretty sure the tap/thread size Greg was using ain't no 10-32 or smaller.
Anytime "ole mutton mitts" here breaks a tap it isn't large enough for those Walton extractors to work. ( I must be too feeble to break larger taps).

[f350ca]

This was the first time I used it, was a 3/8 tap at the bottom of a 1 inch deep hole full of cuttings, of course never backed it out on the way in, so it took a bit of torque to get it moving but then wiggled out. I was impressed.

[stevec]

I'm glad you had success Greg, just sayin' , don't get yer hopes up if you snap a # 6, #8 or even #10.
I have had success using a couple or three nuts of the right size and three pieces of piano wire down the flutes of the broken part and up into the remaining tap. But this was only to impress underlings and further my mastery mystique.

[PixMan]

I've got just one Walton Tap Extractor, a three flute for #4-40 taps. Never been used and I doubt it will because I use only top-quality name brand taps and my Starrett tap wrenches give such a good feel of what's happening while tapping.

Today's project (first time I've turned on any machines in in weeks) was to alter 3 aluminum spacer rings for a motorcyle wheel swap project, and make one new one.

The alterations were to take one 12mm thick 30x25 spacer down to 7.5mm thick, another of the same diameters down to 10mm thick. A third was 36x30, had to face it down from 13mm to 10mm thick.

The replacement piece was 40x25 and 26mm long. The existing one was 6mm too short.

From start to finish, all work (except sweeping some chips) was done in 35 minutes. I still got game!

[bobm4360]

I have a Walton 6-32 extractor that's been used several times to save other guys' messes. The only tap I ever broke was 1/2-13 (Long story). Patience, heat, and lots of Mouse Milk, usually took 20-30 minutes to extract a broken tap.

Regards,
Bob

[Rickabilly]

There's no shame in breaking taps, I've broken more than I can remember, mostly M6 and M5s in laser or water cut 6mm stainless steel sheet work, I found when we would put a new guy on that said they had never broken a tap as their first reaction to seeing one of the other guys snapping one, it would often turn out that they hadn't really done that much tapping, we were sometimes doing 300 holes a day per man into these production parts that only cost a dollar or three each, so speed was the issue we'd order an extra ten pieces and "chipdriver" or "spiral fluted" taps by the dozen and just power through them with no mercy or regret. We soon went to power tapping. which didn't do much to reduce our tool life or increase productivity but didn't ruin everyone's hands for the next day, we would get such an "urgent order" bonus from that customer that when the job came up it was all hands on deck and we even had one of the girls from the office down in the shop having a go, the supervisors didn't have much supervising to do with twenty guys just tapping holes so they would be there tapping as well. I believe they were a clamping widget of some kind for a local mine and they needed thousands when they needed them but they never knew when that would be.
At the end of the job there were two prizes given one for the highest number of pieces completed and another for the most taps broken it was usually just lunch from the chip shop around the corner but it took away the stigma of snapping taps.

Rick

[TomG]

I finally managed to finish my annual purge of the shop. I moved everything out except for machinery weighing a ton or more, blew out every crack and crevice, stripped the floor, emptied every cabinet and tool box and put everything back in place. It was a huge job but I'm really glad it's done. I don't have a lot of space so chaos really cuts into productivity. Of course I won't be able to find anything for a few months but I'll get over it. Now it's time to get back to building stuff.

Tom

[Mayhem]

You didn't need to clean up on my account Tom!

[TomG]

(09-04-2012, 07:38 AM)Mayhem Wrote: You didn't need to clean up on my account Tom!

Don't flatter yourself Darren, the driving force was actually the weather. I need to finish dry walling the ceiling before the cold arrives because the insulation is starting to come loose and the annual purge seemed like a good place to start. It's also good that I'm back to work today to rest up.

Tom