Tapping Chuck Head 33JT NEW $50

chip4charlie

Well-Known Member
I've listed it on Vancouver Craigslist: https://vancouver.craigslist.org/rds/tls/d/surrey-tapping-chuck/7506685430.html

Little Machine Shop #5591. I got tired of tapping holes manually. Not a Tapmatic, but not $1,500 either. You will have to supply your own arbor.

BRAND NEW, UNUSED.

  • Tap #10 to 1/2" (M3 - M12) threads
  • Quick loading and unloading
  • Adjustable clamping range
  • Good stability, high precision
Turn your bench mill, or lathe into a tapping machine. Tap #10 to 1/2" (M3 - M12) threads.

This is not a reversible tapping head. You must reverse the spindle to extract the tap.

Mounts to 33 Jacobs taper arbor .

Length 2.87" (73mm)

Diameter: 1.89"(48mm)


LMS price $70 USD + shipping + duty + GST + PST + $10 CAD to collect said duty and taxes = around $140 CAD.

I'm in Vancouver (Surrey) but will ship at cost.
 

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chip4charlie

Well-Known Member
It is kind of like a drill chuck, except instead of holding drill bits, it holds taps. Use appropriate arbor and drawbar to mount onto a milling machine. Line up with hole ro be tapped. Calculate appropriate rpm. Turn on, feed, and stop mill. Reverse direction to extracf tap. Viola, a tapped hole!
 

YYCHM

(Craig)
Premium Member
It is kind of like a drill chuck, except instead of holding drill bits, it holds taps. Use appropriate arbor and drawbar to mount onto a milling machine. Line up with hole ro be tapped. Calculate appropriate rpm. Turn on, feed, and stop mill. Reverse direction to extracf tap. Viola, a tapped hole!

What's the advantage over just using a regular drill chuck?
 

chip4charlie

Well-Known Member
Im a newbie, so I will leave that to the more experienced members to answer. But I'm guessing that three jaws 120 degrees apart in a drill chuck does not hold a square tap end well enough against torques needed to.cut threads?
 

PeterT

Ultra Member
Premium Member
A tapping head makes short(er) work of power tapping in a mill or drill press, especially when lots of holes are required - through hole or blind, even re-entering a partially tapped hole.. TapMatic is a popular USA name ($$) but if you peruse that name in YouTube videos you will see some explanation & real time examples. I don't have any knowledge of the LMS unit.

 

PeterT

Ultra Member
Premium Member
Oh sorry my bad if that's not what it is. I just assumed (always dangerous). Based on the LMS instructions I cant really say what it is. They don't use the word clutch or reversing so... what it is it? Maybe like a floating reamer holder that self-aligns within limits?

 

Rauce

Ultra Member
He's not selling a tapping head, it's a tapping chuck, what ever that is.
It holds the the tap by the square shank, better holding power than a drill chuck.

I have a tapping head (ie, with clutch and reverse) that uses a similar style of mechanism to hold the square part of the tap. It has a little float to it.
 

Tom Kitta

Ultra Member
I have couple tapping chucks - as stated by someone else already, all they do is hold the square part of the tap firmly vs. drill chuck that can slip. There is no power reverse or anything like that. I use mine on a lathe where I just use the tailstock wheel to advance & then reverse the lathe for reversing.

I do not use it on the mill as collets hold taps - even 1/2-13 quite well - and this does not provide any advantage. In fact I can make collet slip a bit so collets >>> tap chuck. I could use collets on the lathe as well but tap chuck is touch quicker (I have collets already setup on the mill).

If you have something like ER32 collet chuck on the mill this is just another toy. I also have a real tapping head - these I use for small taps, like 1/4 or smaller - you set precise slipping tension and they back out automatically. But biggest advantage is variable slip - prevents tap from breaking.

I also have like 100 years old tapping head for large taps but have yet to use it. Its quite heavy and takes MT4.
 

jcdammeyer

John
Premium Member
Since this thread [sic] had drifted off a bit at the risk of being told to screw off <GRIN> I thought I'd post what I use now to do tapping on my mill.

I used to use the bottom holder which is spring loaded to move up or down a bit so as I cranked the spindle by hand with a wrench and applied pressure on the down feed handle there was a certain amount of 'give' and with small taps no chance of breakage. I used standard collets to hold the taps and never really did anything bigger than about 8-32. As you back out the tap you pull up on the tap putting tension on the spring loading. When it reaches the top of the hole it literally pops out so it doesn't muck up the top of the thread.

Once I added a spindle encoder to the mill (linuxCNC) I was able to try out power tapping. But there's always the fear the tap would spin in the collet. And I'm using the Tormach Tool holders so theoretically there are 3 places where it could spin. The R8 holder, the collet or the tap in the collet.
TapHolders.jpg
So I bought these special collets specifically to hold taps. You can see the exit of the collet is square. Oh and that's when I discovered there is not really any sort of standard to tap shanks. Especially between metric and imperial.

Most of the taps I use for power tapping in the mill are of the spiral variety for clearing chips better.
 
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