A simple tapping tool

[Peter EParticipant @petere]

Having broken too many small taps I thought it was time to do something about it. The ultimate version is the UPT (Universal Pillat Tool) by George H Thomas, but as I at the time only had a Unimat 4 clone and a small bench drill it had to be something simpler.

One day I spotted a clearing sale of a drill stand to a cost of about £4! I added on a cheap angle gear for a hand held power drill as it had a nice 1-10 mm chuck with 3/8-20 UNF thread.

A few hours of work and this was the result:

Best Regards

/Peter

[Peter EParticipant @petere]

[wheeltapperParticipant @wheeltapper]

Hi

Great minds think alike it seems.

heres my one I’ve been using for a few weeks now.

 

please look in my album to see pic. I can’t get the darn thing to show here,

 

 I couldn’t believe it when I saw yours.

 

where did you get the stand, lidl or aldi.

 

it makes life so much easier, doesn’t it.

 

cheers Roy

 

Edited By wheeltapper on 22/07/2009 21:44:37

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Edited By wheeltapper on 22/07/2009 21:49:00

 

all right I give up, how do you post a pic???????????

Edited By wheeltapper on 22/07/2009 21:51:30

Edited By wheeltapper on 22/07/2009 21:55:10

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Edited By wheeltapper on 22/07/2009 22:00:26

 

 

Edited By wheeltapper on 22/07/2009 22:03:15

[Ian S CParticipant @iansc]

Hi Peter and Wheeltapper I was just looking at a b&d drill stand thats been sitting in a corner of my workshop for years,and I was thinking along the same lines as you two,I’ll have to do something now won’t I.IAN.S.C.

[Peter EParticipant @petere]

@ Wheeltapper:

I found mine in a Coop store (in Sweden), but I guess you can find a similar one in for example Aldi or Lidl almost anywhere.

 

As a drill stand I think it is a bit flimsy, but as a tapping stand i works great. So, I removed the feed linkage and locked the two parts together with a 10 mm (3/8″) bolt. Your idea of turning the thing upside-down is good, why didn´t  think of that, hmm. On the other hand, even the smaller stub handles on my version is perfectly good for tapping with 6 to 8 mm  (1/4″ to 5/16″) taps.

 

I decided to make the handle like a knob with two diameters for more sensitive handling for smaller taps and adding two small stubs for the larger taps. The stubs can then be screwed out so the knob can be rotated freely.

 

@ Ian S C:

Well this is one of those mini projects turning a good-to-have item into something really useful. Hope this was helpful.

 

Best Regards

 

/Peter

[Major DisasterParticipant @majordisaster]

wheeltapper…….

 

You shouldn’t be doing all that editing that late at night!   

Edited By Major Disaster on 02/09/2009 15:41:53

[wheeltapperParticipant @wheeltapper]

Hi

all that editing was trying to get a dam’ picture to show.

 

and I still don’t know how!

 

cheers

the editing side of Roy.

[RedpiperbobParticipant @redpiperbob16487]

Hi All

 I got mine from Lidl I then used the article on making the pillar tool by David Haythornthwaite in  Model engineers workshop No 149 April 2009 to make the arms to hold the faceplate and other accessories  .

Bob

Edited By Bob Sims 4 on 02/09/2009 17:35:31

 

 

This editing must be catching

Edited By Bob Sims 4 on 02/09/2009 17:36:19

[Peter EParticipant @petere]

@Bob Sims 4

The base-plate and pillar of this type of cheap drill stand is actually rigid enough to work great as a base for a George H Thomas (GHT) style universal pillar tool. I wish you good luck and hope that you can take a picture of the result

 

The idea to use cheap pipe fittings also crossed my mind, but before putting this simple tapping tool together, I actually made myself a slightly modified UPT according to the GHT drawings. It came out like below:

 

Compared with the GHT drawing, I had to change the foot as a small MJ-189 cannot “bite” over more than about 70 mm dia (2 13/16″) and that was stretching it a bit. Therefore I added a 10 mm (3/8″) base plate for stability.

 

The arms came out of a piece of 32×75 (1 1/2″ by 3″) bar (quite a lot of hand work there), and the extra foot to support the table.

 

Oh yes, the table. An MJ-189 only have about 45 mm center height so the table came out of an old B&D drill face plate.

 

Apart from the above mods, all is according to the GHT drawings, readily and carefully made in steel using a small MJ-189

 

 

Best Regards

 

/Peter

[Peter EParticipant @petere]

Hi!!

Since the visiting frequency is fairly high on this thread, I thought that I could publish a short manufacturing description as well. Unfortunately a lathe is necessary for some of the parts, but for the imaginative other solutions are probably available. The idea is to provide a little inspiration and some ideas.

As a starting point I used a simple drill stand, …

 and one of those simple angle-gears for hand-held electrical drills (the chuck was nice).

Also some parts from the famous store of odd bits-and-pieces.

I did not think that it was necessary to keep the drill-stand feed function, so I removed all those parts to get a clean “head”. Next in line was to make the lump that is clamped in place instead of the drill. Mine was made out of brass, but anything from cast iron to aluminium will work.

The brass block is the main part. Note that the hole for the chuck axle is off center and quite close to the outer diameter. This will give more room for the “wings”. The knob in front of the block have two knurled diameters to provide suitable momentum for smaller taps. In addition I drilled two holes opposite each other (or one right through the knob) in the larger knurled portion for two stub wings as an aid for turning larger taps. There is also one cross-hole below the larger knurling for two set screws locking the knob to the axle.

To the right of the knob we see the axle, 100 mm (3/8″) dia and about 150 mm (6″) long with a 3/8″-24 UNF thread for the drill chuck. Make the threaded portion the same as the one on the angle gear. Further to the right are the chuck key and the two stub wings. The wings are made from a piece of 8 mm (5/16″) round bar with M6 or 1/4″ BSW/BA thread. make the ´wings just long enough to clear the head casting with a safe distance.

This is how it looks when the block is clamped in place.

Now we add the knob-axle assembly:

As can be seen, the wings pass the head casting quite close, but it works well all the way up to M6/M8 .

Time for the chuck.

It is enough to just screw on the chuck and tighten well, but for best performance the chuck is secured with a little Loctite or similar.

After some filing and finishing the whole stand is painted in your shops colour. The feeding function is locked by exchanging the guide-bar for an M10 bolt, and we get a result as shown below.

The black plastic cover is replaced and on its left side (invisible here) the chuck key gets a clip to be at hand when wanted, and out of the way when working.

This did not take long to make I would guess about a day or so and the result turned out to a useful addition the the workshop.

Best Regards

/PeterE

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