[Jewelry making - Article 00296] - Re: [Orchid] Tap and Die 101

[Jeff Demand]

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Sheila,

    No kidding taps break VERY easily. My rule #1 is to always buy the
    best quality taps. Expensive and hard to do for jewellery sized taps.
    If your set was made in India or etc. beware, Swiss or US are much
    better. One case where $ is not a concern. 

    For tapping you need the right hole size, maybe 60 -70 % thread
    engagement. Bigger holes greatly improve your odds. Put another way,
    if your desired screw size in 1mm tapping a 1mm hole will ruin your
    day, 1.1 -1.2mm much better odds with very little loss of strength. I
    don't have exact numbers for you but a bit of time spent with google
    is a good investment, a broken tap is the best way to ruin (and
    waste) a day. 

    The alignment of the tap with the hole is critical, drill the hole
    with a drill press if possible and use the same set-up to start the
    tap if possible. Use cutting oil, best are ones sold for threading.
    Get the tap started, maybe a turn or two. Back off 1/4 turn to cut
    chips and then another 3/4 turn. Repeat until done, maybe back the
    tap out completely to clear chips every now and then. Gentle... if it
    feels bad it IS. 

    Dies are much much more tolerant, get them going at 90, oil, and chip
    breaking. 

    Hot alum or fresh pickle is good for dissolving broken taps :-) And
    you WILL break some. On a more cheerful note I found that as my
    broken tap skills (painfully) the incidence of broken taps decreased. 


    Always around to answer questions, my auto pilot bench skills are
    usually better than my explanations, I've got to think to type. 

Jeff
http://www.gmavt.net/~jdemand
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