carl mciver wrote:
"Dave August" wrote in message
. com...
| I read a few posts here in the last month or so, complaining about broken
| taps or tapped holes that weren't square so I thought I'd post this link..
| it's ho to build a 'do it yourself' tapping fixture that I wrote several
| years ago for ou r Live Steam web site.. This is a direct link to the
| article since the site uses 'frames' and there is no other easy was to get
| there.
| http://www.ggls.org/TappingFixture/index.html

Very cool. At work lately I've been using a pneumatic hand drill
looking tool that runs taps. Push it in the tap goes forward. Pull it
back, it goes backwards. Pretty fast if you pull the trigger all the way.
Very cool. It's big and heavy, which makes it far more stable. Doesn't
mean I haven't broken a tap, but it certainly makes quick work of dozens of
holes! Lubricant a necessity here. Otherwise I'd be using a cordless
drill.

What about chucking the tap in a drill press, checking for center, and
then running the tap in by hand?

--RC (who doesn't do much tapping)