Cedarburg Hand Tap Machine
- Thread starter joe.striper
- Start date
LumpyMusic
Well-known member
Imagine tapping a 4" square piece of 1/4" thick steel...
Drill the appropriate sized hole in the steel. Place the steel on the base plate of your tapper. Insert the appropriate tap into the upper gizmo on the tapper. Lower the tap to the hole in the steel plate. Move or insert that screw in the base plate so that it restricts the rotational movement of the workpiece. You don't want the workpiece hard clamped, you want it to "find the bit" and be able to move so the tap will self center. But you do want the workpiece to keep from rotating so that the tap can do it's thing.
When you want to back the tap a half turn to clear the chips, I guess you'd have to manually hold the workpiece in this style tapper. Some have a sort of floating vise that restricts rotation in either CW or CCW direction.
I have the Chinese style they sell at Enco and other places. I think it's one of the most used tools in my shop. Much easier to setup and use than the drill press method.
Limited, of course, to the size of workpiece you can fit in there.
Lump
Drill the appropriate sized hole in the steel. Place the steel on the base plate of your tapper. Insert the appropriate tap into the upper gizmo on the tapper. Lower the tap to the hole in the steel plate. Move or insert that screw in the base plate so that it restricts the rotational movement of the workpiece. You don't want the workpiece hard clamped, you want it to "find the bit" and be able to move so the tap will self center. But you do want the workpiece to keep from rotating so that the tap can do it's thing.
When you want to back the tap a half turn to clear the chips, I guess you'd have to manually hold the workpiece in this style tapper. Some have a sort of floating vise that restricts rotation in either CW or CCW direction.
I have the Chinese style they sell at Enco and other places. I think it's one of the most used tools in my shop. Much easier to setup and use than the drill press method.
Limited, of course, to the size of workpiece you can fit in there.
Lump
tool_scrounge
Well-known member
The original cedarburg is usually of much better quality than the Asian copies. It is a very nice tool for tapping #8 and larger holes.
ez-duzit
Well-known member
When you need to reverse the tap for clearing chips, that is the time to clamp the work--it is already centered.
Steinmetz
Well-known member
Nice item. What's a "pic"?
I usually thread in the lathe, or on the milling machine.
I usually thread in the lathe, or on the milling machine.
I think that is short for pick or picker.
davethorik
Well-known member
That's like a fixed position manual version of the Wilton pneumatic tapping arm that is at my workplace. Definitely could be a handy tool
woody 73
Well-known member
Oh how I wish I could have found one of those hand tap units it would have made my last job much easier!
Also known as a common hand tapper. What you are referring to is a tapping arm, a much newer concept.
Build one out of an old bench top drill press.
OP
joe.striper
Well-known member
Yep, i 'pic' stuff from tagsales. I buy and restore vises as a hobby and when i see crazy stuff like this I snag it. I pd $ 50 not knowing what it was and I am thrilled to have it. Dont know if I'm keeping it uet. We will see...
Thanks for all the information everyone
Last edited:
Never mind!
My bad.
Thinking of Casting Specialties, div of C.F. Struck, out of Cedarburg WI.
Sorry.
OP
joe.striper
Well-known member
Hey i paid $50 bucks not .50 cents. Damned eyes and fat fingers, but itis still cool and as it turns out it is uncommon bordering on rare. Man i can't find these anywhere used.
OK, it was my mistake, I had to revoke the you ****. The space behind the $ in the op led me to think it was $0.50 so I added the period in there.
It's still a very handy rig and as others have stated it's a step up from using the drill press specially if you have several holes to drill and tap.
LumpyMusic
Well-known member
Clamping it DOWN to the tool's table virtually guarantees you'll change the angle of the workpiece in relation to the tap - asking for trouble. The Enco China style clamps the piece but still allows fore and aft movement. So the bit still lines up correctly and stays aligned in CW or CCW rotation.
You could do about the same thing on the style tapper in this thread with pins, bolts or vise grips placed on the TABLE (not the workpiece) so that the corners of the work BUMPED into the obstruction as it tried to turn with the tap.
But once I start a tap (or a drill) I don't want to start clamping or re-clamping the work.
Sgt Lumpy
ez-duzit
Well-known member
The tapper base is your datum. The rotating shaft is perpendicular to this datum. Downward pressure on the tap holds the workpiece tightly against the base. So, once you have the tap centered and started, there is no danger of the workpiece moving out of alignment when clamped to the base.