Haven't posted on this thread in a while, been busy with the
ATC Project.
Finished my tapping attachment tonight and gave it a test.
I added my little 269 oz/in stepper to drive the spindle with 4:1 timing pulleys.
More tests will see if it will need upgraded.
I was able to tap 1/4-20 x .750 deep in aluminum plate with it no problem.
My goal is 3/8-16 x .750 in the aluminum tooling plate I need to
get around to making for the mill.
I figure I'll need to drill and tap about 253 holes. That's why I built this.
Forget tapping all those holes by hand.
I use the 4th axis to drive it with the steps per setup so that 1.000 in = 1 revolution.
If I want the hole to be 1.0 in deep with 20 tpi, the A axis 'moves' 20.0 in (20 revs)
I'm not rigid tapping (though I'm going to try it later)
I made a spring loaded tension/compression tapping fixture that allows to tapping head to have
a little give (about 1/4 inch) in either direction.
Patterned it from a commercial item used on an industrial CNC mill. About $160 for a cheap one.
So far so good, no broken taps or stripped threads, but hey, I've only done 7 holes so far
More playing to do.
Check out the
first video here.
Thanks Hoss
http://www.hossmachine.com