On Sat, 11 Dec 2010 23:20:50 -0600, Ignoramus23245
wrote:

It is kind of really amazing, how well I can tap on a manual lathe
when I need a concentrically tapped hole. The accuracy and ease of
that cannot possibly be even approached while tapping manually.

To hold the tap, I used Morse tapered tap collets that I horse traded
a while ago. They are made to hold taps with square shanks. See
mcmaster item 2731A49 for example.

It was also nice to slow down the lathe greatly, by changing the
frequency of the VFD.

i

I've used a tool like this for many years:
http://www.use-enco.com/CGI/INSRIT?P...PMAKA=325-5179

It has a 1/2" shank that fits the tailstock chuck in the lathe and the
chuck in the mill. I crank the tap by hand, or stop the tap with a
wrench and rotate the lathe chuck by hand. It preserves "feel" and
enables "rocking" the tap to break chips, useful in some materials
with some tap sizes.

Not a production approach to be sure. I don't do production. It
works very nicely for model-shop sort of jobs and tasks.