What’s the finest thread you’ve tapped?
Sheet metal self tapping screws is the best I’ve done.
Alright, close the thread.
1/2” 50 (yes 50 threads per inch)
Pretty sweet, what was it for?
Dental drills. We had to have the tap custom made. Threads were in brass. A fine touch was important
2-56. In tool steel. By hand.
Don’t even think about breathing until you are clear.
And you don’t dare take your hand off the handle so it doesn’t snap from the weight!
I use 2-56 to thread hotwheels so I can put them back together with 1⁄8” machine screws, after you customize them. Ive snapped 2 since I’ve started trying it out.
Nice customs. I like the polished ones.
4-40, for adding a pocket clip to a 18350-based flashlight.
Tell me it was at least a through hole and not blind.
I do blind 4-40’s fairly regularly in vintage bike stuff that is “non-repairable” in place of drilled out rivets or staked parts.
Accurate and straight tap drilled hole, a little dab of Tap Magic, and back her out to clear chips often and it’s not a big thing.
Do enough holes and you get a feel for what you can get away with (i.e. break a few taps and ruin a few parts and you get a whole lot more careful.)
There’s lots of broken taps out there just due to not getting started straight with the hole.
And you are right, the finer the thread, the shallower the cut.
The second I feel any resistance where it will twist even slightly makes me back completely out and clean the hole. I’ve snapped way too many small taps in my day to not be patient.
A couple were through holes, but on the last one I did, it would have been seen where the tailcap switch is. That one I dremeled off the tap end to make it work.
Solid effort
I’ve tapped #6-32 in 1⁄2” stainless, that was stressful, felt like I was gonna break the tap with every tiny movement
I’ve done much finer threads but came here to throw specific shade at #6-32. It is one of the thread sizes I actually dread because the thread pitch is too coarse for its minor diameter. Which means less material in the web of a tap which makes them particularly prone to breaking even under ideal conditions.
Stainless is butthole puckering no matter the thread, but that’s extra tough.
click
More like tink
🥺😭😂😂😂😂😂
Form taps are your friend. I’ve almost exclusively switched for tapping in stainless steel
I just finished tapping 800 blind holes .4” into O1 steel with #6-32. I broke a lot of taps.
1⁄4-100
Are you trolling?
No, we use 1⁄4-100 in optics engineering. Our fab group was doing some off site training and I needed it done. Tapped 6061 with our 1⁄4-100 tap. Never again.
The assembly used ThorLabs 1⁄4-100 cap screws for adjustment.
Effing love Thorlabs
Do you know the reason why? Specific for optics. Is it a gas fitting? How is teflon tape not a solution. Is it for setting the parallelism within the fixture?
No it’s just fine pitch adjustment for aligning components. For me it was dialing in a laser with a mirror array.
Same! The 1⁄4-170s from ThorLabs are crazy!
I’ve done this one too. Makes nice adjusters.
100 turns to go an inch is nuts! I mean on the manufacturing side, makes sense for fine optical adjustments. I just can’t imagine turning a tap 100 times to go one inch!
Ain’t it 200 turns since you only turn a tap 180?
Transducer for an injection mold?
It’s to keep the wires safe for a limit switch.
M6 fine into cryogenic alloy 😤
I’m unfamiliar with cryogenic alloys, is that like hardening it?
Probably M10 x .5Fine, but not too awful.
I was surprised at how smoothly it chewed through the aluminium.
Yeah we long as you get your drill size right and get the tap started straight. Those fine threads are always nerve wracking though.
That’s why I used the Bridgeport to drill and swapped the tap directly into the same collet without touching anything else. Wasn’t taking any chances in a $120 CNC’d part, lol.
0-80. I can barely use a finger and thumb when turning the handle bc they’re stupid easy to break even in aluminum. Luckily I’ve only had to do that a handful of times.
0-80s and m1.6, I’m the only guy who can reliably tap them at work, an unfortunate talent.
Take the handle off the tap wrench, start really slowly, keep it straight and throw the tap away before it has a chance to even think about getting dull
Yeah, that definitely sounds like one of those skills you’d rather not have. Just like I don’t tell employers I speak some Chinese, just to avoid becoming the default send to China guy.
I’ve used that size tap once like 30 years ago and I may still have the tap.
Yeah did a lot of that had to reach with the tap sticking out 2 inches to reach in deep pocket
Fuck that sounds horrible.
We made these parts out of .060 thick low carbon steel that was Zinc plated and then it had a tap that size 0-80 in a straight line every quarter of an inch around the perimeter of a 4-in square so it could be fast and really tightly and hold down a gasket.
I had to tap all those holes. I set up a tapmatic tapping head on a tabletop drill press , and adjusted the clutches, and ended up doing thousands and thousands of them. And you’re right it was an unfortunate thing that I could figure out how to do it. I was stuck with that job until the customer changed the design.
Sometimes it sucks being the clever one!
Her name was Jen
Good thing you were properly equipped with nano scale equipment, am I right?
After 3 Jenerators, I’ve vowed the name Jennifer as a non-starter. How weird would a 4th gen be?
I’ve threaded 240 tpi in some optics stuff but the smallest I’ve ever tapped was 00-80 in 17-4 H1025 the smallest I’ve ever thread milled is 000-120 in 17-4 H900. Had to use a loupe to see if the tooth was still left on it!
What is the use case for this many tpi? I never really understood the reason. Even for gas fittings how is teflon tape not a solution?
Wide but thin things like lens filters that you still want a few threads of engagement.
Fine adjustment for focusing, especially things like microscopes I imagine.
The 240 was for a barrel adjustment for an optics instrument like 4” diameter. They asked if I could do it and I did. The others were for fasteners for medical instruments and devices.
1500 thread count, genuine Egyptian cotton sheets
Got a production run of parts right now that have several M1.6x.35 threads.
000-120. In Titanium alloy.
Was it as bad as it sounds?
Pretty much.
96 tpi. Watch movements
1⁄4 - 100s
Good lawd!
I was looking for someone with something like this. 1⁄4-80, 1⁄4-100, and 3⁄16-120 are all pretty common for optomechanics. Worst I’ve heard of in somewhat common use is 1⁄4-170!
M50 X 0.5 Painful to start in copper.
What in the world was that for?
Some special electrical component.
M1.2
I put this micro Tap/Die setup together for my 1⁄25 scratch scale auto model parts. The regular looking Die is the most used tool and it’s a M1 however the toolmaker set starts at that size and goes as small as .40’ish I think they use a # system from 20 - 7 on the Dies with matching Taps. All can be threaded using your fingers unless it’s stainless then I break out the wrench you see on the top of the cover.
m6 x .8
She was a 6.
M2x0.4. I hate that the tap feels like it will snap from a harsh look more than the pitch.
2⁄56 sucked
1⁄4 - 100 for a fine adjustment optical screw
000-120
M2.5 in grade 5 titanium. Thread milled it tho