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A New kind of Drill and Tap Chart

A_Pmech

Stainless
Joined
Dec 27, 2004
Location
Central IL, USA
I've never liked cardboard tap charts and I hate wall charts with a passion. Starrett's #185 is OK, but it doesn't contain all the data I use regularly, especially for lathe work. Instead of getting my Machinery's Handbook all greasy I decided it was time to make my own chart.

I wanted something that would be easy to clean, survive coolant and oil baths, hot chips, the usual stuff. The chart is etched in .040" 3003 Aluminum.

Here's the prototype:

Drillside.jpg


Tapside.jpg


I've received interest from people on other forums and I've decided to offer them for sale.

The charts are $24.50 each plus $4.75 USPS Priority Mail shipping. Please PM me if you would like one.
 
Looks great! How big is the chart? If it will fit into a shirt pocket, I'd think that the letters might be little hard to read if you don't have the best eyes. Also, do you think a future version might be a little bigger and include metric information on it, as well? I'm mainly using metric on parts that I make, so it would be great to have those figures on there, too.
 
Hi Ions,

Thanks!

The chart is approximately 6" by 8", or just a bit bigger than Machinery's Handbook. I thought about a pocket chart, but yeah, too small to read!

A metric version is in the works. :)
 
AP_Mech,

Looks great! Nice to see you're getting to put what you learned on the band saw project to use.

I may have spotted a typo. At the bottom of the first chart, the section for oversize drilling lists the 1" max as .009, mean as .009, and min as .004. Judging from the other rows, shouldn't mean fall between max and min?

How do these stand up to common shop solvents?

Henry
 
AP_Mech,

Looks great! Nice to see you're getting to put what you learned on the band saw project to use.

I may have spotted a typo. At the bottom of the first chart, the section for oversize drilling lists the 1" max as .009, mean as .009, and min as .004. Judging from the other rows, shouldn't mean fall between max and min?

How do these stand up to common shop solvents?

Henry

Thanks Henry!

You did indeed spot a typo, thanks! I went though the prototype thoroughly today and caught a couple others. I'm making new film tomorrow.

Well, the lettering is filled with satin black enamel and then the chart is buffed out with car wax. For cleaning all you really need is a little simple green and a rag. It should stand up to oils, grease, dirt, etc. just fine. But I wouldn't immerse it in laquer thinner or paint remover. (You'd just have to re-fill the lettering if you did).




A metric version is underway. I'll post up as soon as I have it done.
 
If you have room...normally a numerical range uses the long hyphen instead of a short hyphen that is used with words. I think the long hyphen is control hyphen, but I can't get it to work in the reply box here.

Allen
 
Hi guys,

Thanks for the orders so far! My PM box has been filling up with orders, so if you get a "PM box full message, give it a while and try again or send an email to:

email-1.jpg


Stainless is a possibility in the future, but my shear won't handle it. Plus, the price would go up quite a bit as stainless always shears with a razor-sharp burr that needs to be dressed off every edge or the thing would cut you open like a razor blade.

I think everyone can agree that Aluminum is a significant improvement over cardboard and laminated paper. :)

S_W_Bausch said:
However, on ebay, I found some stiff competition

I hope they're at least laminated so the stickiness with wash off.

:D
 
F.Y.I. I tried the ctrl hyphen trick....it merely shrunk the page....

not a bad product....but for sure I could use it in a larger version:eek:

can not see so good up close anymore.

Mick
 
IMHO, the types of steel sound somewhat confusing (to me, at least).

Mild steel is one the of the plain carbon steels, so it's unclear what Plain Carbon Steel really signifies and why its FPM range doesn't extent beyond mild steel specs.

"Alloy steel" category incorporates stainless steel, so it would make sense to either combine them into one item or separate a Low Alloy Steel category.


P.S. FPMs for Brass and Bronze could be helpful.

Also, the max FPM for aluminum seems to be too low. It's, usually, given as being around 800fpm.
 
Yes, for HSS (it depends on alloy/condition, of course).

But 500-600 fpm is suggested as the high limit for the vast majority of aluminum alloys.
 
tap chart

Let us know when the second run is ready to ship. I want one.

I am also interested in new plates for my 36" metal master. Are you interested in provideing those? Even etched plates that I could cut to shape if you didn't have time for that.
 








 
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