[bobeson]

I own both a reversing tormach tapping head and their new compression tapping head. Although I've cut hundreds of threaded holes with my mill in the year I've owned it, I've never used either of the tapping heads because I first discovered all the wonderful advantages offered by thread milling. Once you get the hang of hand-coding the cutting path, they are really easy to use - trivial almost.

I keep thinking that I need to sell my tapping heads, but then I get to thinking that I should at least learn to use them before getting rid of them. Whenever a hole comes along that needs threading, however, I find myself wanting to just mill the threads for expediency.

I modified a Vardex full-profile insert thread mill toolholder with a .750 shank to add a TTS shoulder, which I use often to cut ID and OD threads of various pitches for larger bore sizes, and also have a collection of solid carbide thread mills for smaller bores. BTW, thread mills are all insanely overpriced! What's up with that? They appear to be on par with nice taps in terms of materials and manufacturing complexity, they they cost 10x as much as a good tap! Lakeshore Carbide has by far the best deals I've found so far for solid thread mills - about $80/each vs. $160+ that's typical for most distributors. Thread milling can certainly set your pocketbook back pretty quickly if you are in the habit of breaking tools. Or so I've heard. Ahem

[wvines]

...Lakeshore Carbide has by far the best deals I've found so far...

I have the Lakeshore Carbide threadmills and, I agree, they work great. And they're still expensive even though they're cheaper than most. I'm almost afraid to use them unless I have too. The only drawback I've seen is that I can't cut very long threads with them because they're fairly short.

I'll look into the Vardex threadmill toolholder. Thanks for the tip.