Making a Tap Wrench || INHERITANCE MACHINING

when i inherited my grandfather's machine shop it came with a lot of tooling and i mean a lot of course he didn't have everything but the fundamental tools are all accounted for well except for one thing nowhere in this entire shop exists a tap wrench i know i could hardly believe it myself reflecting back on my time spent working with my grandfather i can't recall ever using one either we were using crescent wrenches like barbarians but that simply won't do a shop really needs a tap wrench so i made one [Music] [Music] for the design of this tap wrench i decided to take a different approach i'll be replicating a steret 91c for whatever reason this is what i think of when i hear the words tap wrench it's like the quintessential tap wrench design it just looks nice and also looks like a challenge there are a lot of flourishes on it that make it stand out from the typical tap wrench styles that are designed for manufacturing ease a bit of machining potpourri if you will so it will be fun trying to figure out how to make all these features while maintaining the quality i'm looking for let's just hope it doesn't turn into six weeks of side projects like my last handmade tool adventure all right let's dive in i'm starting with the handle for reasons i'll explain shortly in fact the order of operations is pretty important for this project so much so that i spent a good deal of time planning them out nobody likes getting hours into a project to realize they machined away material they need for fixturing so with that in mind i want to make sure i leave some extra material in certain areas as usual we start with turning nothing like that first pass with the bar trim down the size it's time to switch to the first exciting operation knurling this will put a great deal of force on the shaft so i'm going to do this now while i have the most material possible to resist deflection what i remember from my past experiences with knurling is that it takes a bit of trial and error the height should be such that both rollers hit the shaft at the same time so that each are exerting the same amount of force add a little bit of oil and let's give it a go one of the hatch directions looks a bit deeper than the other but adjusting the height of the tool still gives the same results after a while i figured out i was bashing into the live center with the tool fortunately my grandfather happened to have a smaller one actually he had four of them you know just in case so i can swap this out to give more clearance for the tool this doesn't quite amount to a full side project so i'll chalk this up as a minor inconvenience uh-oh it's never a good sign when i get a counter on the screen with the smaller live center installed we can start knurling over again that's what i'm talking about the knurling looks pretty consistent in the middle section so i think i can work with that there is a bit of a goofy section at the beginning but after turning this end detail that completely goes away now we can move on to the id this will be threaded to a 5 8 18 which requires a 3764 starter hole don't worry i should have a drill that size around here somewhere or not must have been traded for a live center i guess i'll have to get it close with the 9 16 drill and take the last bit with a boring bar you know the drill here a short game of musical tool holders to mount the boring bar and roth to the races or we should be but something isn't right you've got to be kidding me of course when set to the correct height the boring bar crashes in the bottom of the hole foiled again i don't have to go very far so i'm just going to try this cutter from a boring head there's a little bit of chatter but it does the job now my next operation isn't one i'm exactly proud of i'm going to cut the threads with a tap in my defense my only internal threading tool is a bit too big for the bore so unless i want to get sucked into another side project or wait for ye old postman to deliver a new one this is the best i got and if you thought i was just being chicken watch me while i power feed this tap all the way to depth this actually brings me to the reason i'm making the handle first when i cut the male threads on the body i can custom fit the clearance to whatever this tap produces if i did it the other way around i may cut the threads too small or too large and basically scrap the part i'm not quite finished on the lathe but i've done as much as i can right now so i'm parting this off a bit long and moving over to the mill i need to drill a simple cross hole in the handle the extra material we left lets me mount this on the collet or while avoiding the knurling see order of operations is important a spot face with an end mill clears the knurling that could throw off the center drill then i'm free to drill all the way through to diameter and finally add a very light chamfer on each side because of course chamfers are sexy back over on the lathe we can do one last little operation i need to part this to length but i also want a 5 8 radius on the end like the original so let's make a tool to do both at the same time you can consider this the one side project for the video and i'll pretend this means i'm getting more efficient precision on this radius isn't absolutely critical so i'm fine grinding this by hand the relief angles on this probably aren't technically correct either but i'll give it a shot anyway a wise machinist would try this on a scrap piece of steel first but apparently i'm only wise in hindsight overeager me just let her rip and the result is not bad unsurprisingly that left a little nubbins on the end so i'll clean that up real quick with a cutting tool and give it a good polish with emery cloth that turned out great but admittedly it's one of the simpler parts of this project let's dial it up a notch or five time to tackle the body this part has way more operations there are large radius contours tapered shafts and even square holes some of these are necessary but many of them are not and that's what sets us wrench apart from the average hand tool making it more of a work of art but of course it all starts with the basics we have to get this turned down the diameter yup that first pass never gets old let's check the progress wait a minute my tail stock seems to be out of alignment i did level this lathe already but apparently not well enough i'll get around this for now by adjusting the tail stock but i think this counts as double minor in convenience points considering the implications with this turned down the diameter the rest of the way i'll part this off a couple inches longer than i need this extra material will come into play later next i need to turn the 5 8 18 threads to match the handle i switch to the collet chuck for this because i don't have room to cut the threads while using a live center plus the collet truck has almost no run out so i can remount this without issue i've prepared a section for threads about an eighth inch longer than i need way down the road i'll need to hold this end in the center again so i want to be able to remove this feature on the final part order of operations once again is key here coding the area with daikum lets me easily check the pitch of the scratch pass looks good so let's proceed and here's where i make a big boo-boo as i was getting close to a good fit for the handle i was taking one of my last few passes but as soon as i started cutting something just looked off in a panic i disengaged the feed mid thread then in a second wave of brilliance i backfed the carriage off the part completely boogering up the end of the threads the length of this section was a guess anyway so i'll just make a few small revisions cut it short and no one will be the wiser even with the damage the remaining thread cuts cleared this enough to test fit the handle and the fit is actually really smooth just like i wanted now let's calm down take a step back and do something simple like a drilled and reamed hole this opening will be for the plunger that clamps the tap in place i'm reaming this now since i'll have more control when i turn down the plunger diameter and make it fit to my liking there's obviously more turning to do on this piece but before we get there i have a ton of work to do on the mill first the collet indexer makes an appearance again the tolerances are a bit more critical in this part so out of curiosity i decided to check the run out yeah that's not gonna work after double checking and cleaning everything there's still no improvement but i do still have one trick up my sleeve and it's probably not what you'd expect it's another beefier collet indexer sure it's a little rough but i refuse to get sucked into another side project right now so i'll just clean the important bits and see how it does that's way better i can live with one thou run out all right let's get down to business i'm gonna start with the big radius features near the middle of the body this could also be done on the lathe if i had a radius turning fixture but alas i do not so i'll be using the side of the shell mill that just so happens to be the correct radius this is surprisingly easy to turn by hand and i'm down to diameter in no time my target in the middle is right about a half inch that would do nicely now i can pull the part out a bit more and cut the second scallop doing it this way keeps the cutter close to the chuck where deflection and vibrations are less of an issue i'm actually impressed with how well that worked good job brandon now we can move on to the middle flat thingies or whatever you call them i'm switching out for a roughing mill you know because it's actually intended for side cutting oh and i also finally figured out the cool mist system so no more squirt bottle how luxurious let's check the progress oh of course i'm getting different readings what is it with me and unintentional tapers on this project the dial indicator confirms the same four vowel deviation across this two inch length i know the vice is trammed in so it must just be the base of the collet indexer i'll trim this out now but keep it in mind to check and fix this if i ever get to the point of restoring this thing fully that's much better i'll take this to within 10th hour final dimension on each side not surprisingly the roughing mill doesn't leave a showroom quality finish so i'm switching to this ordinary flute mill for the last few passes that's more like it might i also point out the slight scallop on each side josiah of the big scallops so nice all right let's move on to drilling this is going to put a lot of downward pressure on the part so a little support from a machinist jack will help don't ask me why i decided to support on the threads rather than the big boss right next to them after pre-drilling i'll be taking this right to diameter since i'll be doing a little bit of filing here anyway well that didn't go so smoothly maybe drawing the plunger hole first wasn't the best idea it seems to have jarred the drill bit all out of whack that really looks awful there is one saving grace though the majority of the carnage will be taken out when i file the square notch that supports the tap i may just be doing a little bit more filing than i expected before i have time to second guess and make the problem worse let's move on to the pin slot this will prevent the plunger from rotating as the handle is tightened my nominal width is an eighth inch but as i soon discovered double-sided slot milling like this will overcut the slot width that's a bit too much play for my tastes i can do better i'll widen this to the next largest drill size enough to clear the chatter marks then when i make the pen i can dial in the diameter to the fit i'm looking for now that's more like it at this point it occurred to me that i could save myself a great deal of time filing if i mill out most of the corner that receives the tap to do this i'm rotating the vise on a 45 degree angle using a center punch i can relocate the center of the hole and re-zero the dro then it's just a matter of whittling away with the eighth inch end mill hmm the result doesn't exactly give me the warm and fuzzies but i've already committed to slaving away with a file so let's go ahead and get this out of the way my grandfather once told me that back in the day the first task of a machining apprentice was to make a one two three block using nothing but a file fortunately he never enforced this practice on me sitting here now with plenty of time to ponder i can really appreciate what a difficult task that must have been it's quite the challenge to keep my movements at the correct angle in three dimensions but after a while it does start to get easier using a marker also helps greatly to actually see where i'm directing the file i've got this to the basic shape and size that i intended but there is one spot where i went a little too far with the end mill i'm also just a bit undersized for this three quarter inch tap so i'll just notch this corner a little bit further on each side to clear that mess up and fit the bigger tap in my eyes this increased capacity more than makes out for the mild inconvenience so i'll call it a happy accident oh fine i guess it still counts now it's back to the lathe for some more fun another one of the completely unnecessary but totally fancy features of this part is the tapered handle it's not much only a sixteenth of an inch change in diameter across the length of the handle but it means that i get to do some turning between centers the tail stock will need to be offset to achieve the taper but there's one important piece of math to do first we can't just move the tail stock half the diameter change on the handle the actual distance between the centers needs to be considered which also happens to be the length of the part a little bit of proportion math tells us that we need to move the tail stock backwards 78 thousands the part can then be mounted and oh look at that the perfect mounting spot for the drive dog almost like someone planned for this all right let's give this a whirl there's some intermittent chattering but taking more aggressive cuts seems to help i'm also not turning all the way to the tailstock center because you know work holding since this feature is entirely aesthetic i'm just going until i sort of look tangent to the radius we cut earlier the result looks pretty good you can see a little bit of variation at the intersection caused by the slight run out we had cutting the scallop in the mill but i think that will stand out no problem yeah that looks amazing we're so close let's wrap this up swapping back to the collet chuck and realigning the tailstock sets us up for the last couple of operations first is turning down the remaining boss on the threaded end the diameter here isn't critical either so i'm using the same tangent approach as before i can't resist sanding the rest of the body now not only will this smooth that transition but it will also soften all the hard edges left over from the milling operations this is looking too good i'm so pleased we're done with the live center so we can use the parting tool to remove the extra boogered threads from before yeah i know this isn't the best way to do this but it gets the job done lastly we can switch back to the radius parting tool we made earlier and cut this to length then sand the little nubbins away and with that i present to you the most glorious handmade tap wrench handle known to man or at least that i've ever held but we're not done they're still the matter of the plunger without which this is nothing more than an overly fancy fidget spinner the plunger is a pretty simple part but still requires a fair amount of precision to achieve the smooth action and operation that tied this all together we'll start in the usual manner by turning down some stock this first cut sets the diameter for the head of the plunger then cue the now routine adjustment of the tail stock on the bright side i'm getting pretty good at this it's important that the diameter be very consistent so it slides buttery smooth through the reamed port now we can hog away the rest of the plunger to within a foul of what we need and cut off the support stock for a test fit the body doesn't quite fit but this is a good thing i want to use emery cloth to get it just right because buttery smooth i think that should just about do it so let's part this off for the next operation i'll be cutting the other end to a taper matching the 135 degree drill we used in the handle so we'll set up the compound rest for this and make our cuts running the lathe in reverse then of course clean it up with some emery cloth because if you couldn't tell we're sanding everything now and naturally we have to test fit this in the wrench because we can i just have to be careful not to lose the spring since it's the only one i in front of the lathe has got to be the worst place to drop a spring it's literally all springs down here okay where was i seems the length came out just right let's move over to the mill and cut the notch in the end of this hey hey first actual use of the collet blocks yeah they're still a bit wonky but good enough for this there's likely a more clever way to indicate in on the end of this shaft but i'm just going to use the old icrometer my thought is with the help of some layout fluid i can see where the end mill lines up with the center point left over from facing the end on the lathe i'd expect this will get me within about five thou then to keep it centered i just have to remember to move the x and z axes the same amounts let's see how that works in the wrench would you look at that we're officially holding our first tap it would be really annoying if this plunger was able to rotate in here though so we need to drill the retaining pin hole a lot of things changed on this end of the wrench from the original planned so rather than measure this out i'm just going to use the slot described right on the plunger one side using the biggest tap and one side using the smallest back over on the mill it's fairly important that this pinhole be parallel to the notch in the end so we can carefully use the end of a parallel to set the angle and clamp the vice then i think you know the rest the final drill is one size smaller than the slot width about fourth how this will allow me to have both a press fit for the pin but still have clearance for the slot speaking of the pin we need to make one real quick this will just take a couple minutes really not this again okay i lied this is the worst place to drop something oh well that was easy beginner's lock ok that is literally all the machining operations complete there's nothing left to do now but assemble everything wow that is so smooth if anything was off center by more than a thou this probably would have bound up as soon as i drove the pin in but it's absolutely perfect nothing left to do now but to try it out what a pleasure to use i'm beyond happy with how this turned out sure we had our fair share of ups and downs but to tell you the truth i relished every minute of the process and this ranch turned out better than i could have hoped for as always thanks for watching and see you next time [Music] you

Channel: Inheritance Machining

Views: 552,664

Keywords: tap wrench, hand tapping, thread tapping, thread tapping tool, tapping wrench, how to tap a hole, tap handle, radius turner, taper turning, square hole, hand filing, diy tool, handmade tools, thread cutting, custom tools, machining fails, o1 tool steel, knurling, machine shop, engine lathe, vertical milling machine, turning between centers, manual lathe, lathe machine operation, metalworking tools, metal lathe, machine tools, starrett, bridgeport, bridgeport mill

Id: 22av6LcDVSY

Length: 19min 42sec (1182 seconds)

Published: Fri Apr 15 2022