[dpaish]

Greetings,
I have a Syil X4. I need to tap lots of 10-24 holes in 0.5" aluminum. Can it be done? Any recommendations of type of tapping head to purchase.

Regards,

Dennis Paish

[inventor30]

I wont tell you it cant be done, nor will I tell you it can........I will tell you I had a similar job thousands of holes 1/4/20 in 1/4 aluminum......I also owned a Syil machine at the time that I was very happy with...............BUT I could tap the holes much faster on a different machine Im thinking it was an Accutapper or something like that. Doesnt look very impressive, but is just the ticket for rapidly tapping lots of small holes in aluminum.

[bosr]

You could use a floating tap holder.
Here's a video by David Decaussin https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ro6V4Qd4CE showing how to make your own.
Here's some code posted on the Mach forum by PaulT for programming the tapping cycle...

Below is one of my tapping macros. Note the underfeed setting that causes the
holder to slightly extend. This value should be tweaked for your machine so you
get slight extension of the holder.

Paul T.

(Filename: TapHole.tap)
(Taps the hole at the current X, Y location to the specified depth)
(Thread Pitch in Turns per Inch must be set)
(Z must be set at zero on top of workpiece)


G20 (Units: Inches)
G40 G90

(Set Editable Parameters)
#1=0.6 (Set Depth)
#2=32.0 (Set Thread Pitch in Turns per Inch)
#3=180 (Set RPM)
#4=0.125 (Set Rapid Height)

(Internal Parameters)
#103=0.91 (Underfeed, 0.91 -> 9 %)
#104=[#103 * 1.0/#2] (feed rate adjusted for under feed)

G0 Z#4 (Move down to rapid height)

(Make any required X,Y move)
(G0 X2 Y3)

M98 P1025 L1 (Call Tap subroutine)

M30

O1025 (Subroutine to Tap)
G95 F#104 (Set to ipr mode and set feed rate)
M3 S#3 M8 (Start Spindle and coolant)
G1 Z[#103 * #1/-1] (Tap down to compensated depth)
M5 (Stop Spindle)
M4 (Start Spindle in Reverse)
G1 Z#4 (Raise spindle at feed rate to rapid height)
M5 M9 (Turn off spindle and coolant)
G94 (Go back to ipm mode)
M99 (Subroutine Return)