Help with Taps and tapping!

rhinoknives

rhinoknives

Well-Known Member
Yep!
Its me again!:biggrin:
I just received my taps for my folder screws and I have three taps in each set. I think that one is for a through hole and one is for a blind hole etc.

One is flat and one is pointy and the other is more pointed

Could you Dogs and Dogettes take a few minutes and walk me through which is which and any pointers on the process?

Thanks.
Laurence

www.rhinoknives.com
 
rhinoknives said:
Yep!
Its me again!:biggrin:
I just received my taps for my folder screws and I have three taps in each set. I think that one is for a through hole and one is for a blind hole etc.

One is flat and one is pointy and the other is more pointed

Could you Dogs and Dogettes take a few minutes and walk me through which is which and any pointers on the process?

Thanks.
Laurence

www.rhinoknives.com
Click to expand...

Lawrence,
What size are they? The flat pointed one is for blind holes they probably sent two pointed ones because they know your going to break one first thing:biggrin:
What material are you going to be tapping?
How do you plan to get them started straight?
Do you have some tapping fluid or cutting oil?
Do you know what size hole to drill for the tap size you are using?
I could give you lots of pointers if I knew how much you already know about tapping holes.
Ask some specific questions and I'll try to help you.
 
Here we go, Lawrence.
To begin with make sure you drill the hole in the size required for the tap you will use. Since this is a through hole you will only need to use the "pointy" tap. I hope you have bought a "fixture" to go into your drill press. It is a handle with a closing end for the tap and has a shaft to go into the chuck of your press. The shaft will spin . The drill press is never turned on. This tool will cost about $20 . To use a hand holding tool will only mean broken taps. KBC has one . The part no. is 1-397-513
The flat bottom tap is for doing "blind" holes where the screw doesn't go all the way through. I hope this helps. Frank
 
Thanks guys,
I just bought the hand wrench for tapping. I have never tapped anything, Well as far as metal and folders go anyway! So the hand tapping doesn't work too well?
It will be 2-56 screws and 6-32 screw for starters. They will be for the pivots which I will need to size and the handle materials which will be Carbon fiber, Kirinite and micarta type materials for a blind hole for pocket clips.

That is for now, I am sure that I will have more questions.

Thanks.
Laurence

www.rhinoknives.com
 
You will still want to hand tap but especially for fine threads you need a guide to make sure its going in straight. They have small hand tapping guides but they are pretty spendy. If you have a drill press the easiest thing to do is get a tap handle with a guide. Looks like this...

04130665.jpg


The guide pin you chuck up in drill press to kee it going in straight.
 
Rats, The one I purchased doesn't have that extra pin in the top that you say you can put in a drill press.
I think I can send it back for a exchange. I bought this stuff from MSC and they are real cool about exchanging stuff. Ot I could just cut the wing bar off, since i will be using it it the press anyway.

I have a small drill press that the motor just died in that will work great.

P.S. I have plenty of cutting fluid around.

Thanks.
Laurence

www.rhinoknives.com
 
you could possible make a guide too with some bar stock and a bolt. The tap holder body maybe a bit too large to get in the chuck of a small drill press. Most of the tap handles I have seen like above, the guide pin piece is separate and just drops over the top of the handle.
 
Exitium,
The top of the tap wrench will fit in the chuck of my drill press. Its 1/2"

So what size drill bits do I need for 2-56 and 6-32 taps? Is there a chart somewhere for this?

Laurence

www.rhinoknives.com
 
rhinoknives said:
Thanks,
So for the pivot my guess is I want the Close fit? and the Free fit size for handle materials?

Anybody have any pointers here?

Laurence

www.rhinoknives.com
Click to expand...

Close fit,they will wear during the 10,000 times you assemble and disassemble the knife while your building it.:biggrin:
I use a tiny little hand tapping jig that I bought from Hawkins Knifemaking Supplies it works real well for these small taps.
What are you using or liners? I'm assuming your building linerlocks if your using screws.
 
Get a tapmatic, you will likely ignore this advice for a year or two. When you finially get one, you will wonder how you got a long without one. And I will be here to tell you I told you so! :)

30x is the model you want, I got mine of e bay. ;)
 
Lawrence just go to the top thread on here. Boss Dog has it all laid out for us !!!
By the way you cannot tap into carbon fiber or other such materials for pocket clips. You will have to go through to the scale and tap it. Otherwise they will just break up . Keep asking that Calvin is a wizard at making all sorts of folders. I only try to do liner locks. Frank
 
Les George said:
Get a tapmatic, you will likely ignore this advice for a year or two. When you finially get one, you will wonder how you got a long without one. And I will be here to tell you I told you so! :)

30x is the model you want, I got mine of e bay. ;)
Click to expand...

^^^
 
Mark Behnke said:
^^^
Click to expand...

Well this project and the tools needed keep growing! Like always! :sad: LOL.

I will have to finish and sell a few folders to pay for a Tapamatic. I just purchased a new $1000.00 drill press last month.

I will also have to rehash my design if I can't tap pocket clips into the handle materials and expect them to hold. :58:

Anymore expensive advice out there? lol.

Laurence

www.rhinoknives.com
 
Les is right about the Tapmatic,I have one that I set up for tapping 0-80 holes in titanium,I can tap six holes in less time than it takes to set up my hand tapper.
 
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