# New Slant on atpping machine?



## coldte (Dec 11, 2009)

Hi all, After reading several replies on tapping problems and being able to identify with some/all of these i thought it was time to make a tapping machine . Having a redundant drill press (motor removed ) this was to be the donor. I removed all the extras ,down feed , pulley cover etc .After removing the quill , i measured the squill size and top hole in bearing and made a shaft that would still go down the hole but not allow the quill to fall through(it is only a small difference) and turned it down and threaded the end . Next i removed bearings from quill installed in lathe and drilled hole and tapped to take new shaft extension. re-installed quill and screwed in extension. So now quill moves down but does not drop out. To turn the tap i used the former drill press three spoked handle ,But inverted it after making bush to fit top bearing surface(formerly pulley holder) and fastened with lock tight and nut. It was at this point that i decided to try and add weight to the shaft extension and on looking around found a pile of old weight lifting cast iron weights of 1/2 -- 2 1/2 kgs , made a secondary shaft to fit on extension rod and voila a variable pressure for tapping .
Tried it on a selection of taps and it works fine 
The tap holder in picture is from an old ratchet handle which when stripped you can use to hold in the chuck.
Hope you get some ideas from the picture , photography is not my forte and i could not work out how to alter the order of play!


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