![]() ![]() So I looked up the tapping drill sizes needed. When they arrived I decided to test them all. ![]() But since everything I’m likely to need to thread will already have been laser cut, it seems sensible to reduce the load on the tap by laser cutting the holes. To be fair, they are marketed that way, so should work that way. On the reviews stating that “they broke’ it seemed like people were using them to drill their own holes before threading. Well Perspex is pretty soft compared to steel, so I figured “six tap sizes for a tenner – let’s see how long they last – and hit the order button.” Others were saying that they’re good on soft materials. On some listings, people were saying that they break. Caution if you used it with hard metal!” What do the Reviews Say?Īs you do, I looked at the reviews before taking the plunge. ☞2.Application: High Speed Steel 4241 is suitable for wood, aluminum, iron and other lower hardness material, the material thickness is 3-5mm. ☞1.Please add some oil before operate the tap, so the operation is smoother, and also to extend the life of the tap. There’s also a small note at the bottom of the listing that says… Counter-sink might be useful if using thick enough acrylic and counter-sunk bolts. They looked interesting to me because I could easily put them in my cordless drill driver (running very slowly) and use that instead of an agonisingly tedious hand tap. So the way they’re ‘billed’ is that you can drill, thread and counter-sink all in one (variable speed) operation. These are advertised as “HSS Countersink Tap Drill Bit Set, Combination Hex Shank Titanium Screw Thread Metric Tap Drill for Wood Plastic Aluminum Copper, NOT for Hard Metal / Iron Casting” Spiral tapping bits that fit in a drill/driver… So I had a look at Amazon and ebay and something new, shiny and interesting caught my eye. This was why my experiment had failed all those years ago. The key to successful thread tapping, which I’d never actually achieved to-date, is to get the right size of tapping drill. (I vaguely remember a failed experiment some 25+ years ago on a car repair – perhaps I got rid of them? Or maybe they’re just sitting in a drawer somewhere laughing at me?) I looked for a set of hand taps I thought I had, but I couldn’t find them. Threading works best in cast acrylic rather than extruded.Some pearls of wisdom which most of them mention are… Some people use a CNC machine on an industrial scale, but others use a small hand tapping set in the same way you’d tap a thread in metal. So I watched a few videos about thread tapping. In exploring the material, I wanted to investigate thread tapping as I’d heard it was possible and it opens up new design options. It machines beautifully as long as you’re not too ‘greedy’ with your cuts (and if you’re too greedy, it cracks). I’ve sawn, routed and drilled Perspex before. I recently bought a laser cutter (running on a Pi) and started working with acrylic (Perspex). ![]()
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