[mioduz]

Just getting into a haas smm2 and need some advice. Never was able to rigid tap in my current machine. I have a large job waiting to go as soon as the machine is here and running. I need to tap about 12k holes. Materials are mostly aluminum, but there will be some copper and titanium.
8-32 through hole .125 thick
I have been told over and over that form are the strongest, but I don't have any experience with them, and don't have the time to experiment
Any advice is appreciated


Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk

[mioduz]

One other note is that as part of the fixturing of this job after the holes are tapped I need to take the pallet off the table and put screws through the back side of the pallet before the final operations, so my assumption is a tapper tap will give me a bunch of chips in the clearance hole in the fixture that would slow down progress. So I'm assuming I need to be looking at spiral flute or form

Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk

[LeeWay]

I use spiral point taps (gun taps) most often for through holes, especially if you have clearance for chips underneath like in a vise. They work great and last a long time. Months and thousands of holes in aluminum and mild steel. Cheap too.

However I do tap some steel that is pretty thin. .090" thick or 13 gage CRS. I use form taps in that material. They are more expensive and put a burr on the bottom side, but that gives the screw more to bite into. It makes no chips either, but the taps are more expensive.
Form taps will probably be your best bet for getting the most thread out of thin material and they last too.

[Machineit]

One other thing to consider is that with the form tap, because it pushes the metal out to form the thread, it will leave a burr or rise in the plate on both sides. I use form taps a lot, but they work better when you can chamfer the hole before tapping and for holes that don't go through for the same reason.

You mention removing threading chips, but you will also have drilling chips.

Mike