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differences between hand tap and machine tap
- Thread starter Tao
- Start date
- Replies 7
- Views 8,111
Machine taps ie a spiral flute or point tap will force the chips either out of the top of bottom of the hole. Hand taps just toss the chips down into the straight flutes and screw everything up (which is why you have to frequently break the chip by turning backwards and possibly extracting the tap to clean out the hole.
If you have a preexisting hole, tapped or not it’s pretty hard to go wrong with a machine tap for cutting threads if you have any coordination at all. Chasing threads? Piece of cake.
If you have a preexisting hole, tapped or not it’s pretty hard to go wrong with a machine tap for cutting threads if you have any coordination at all. Chasing threads? Piece of cake.
plastikdreams
Diamond
- Joined
- May 31, 2011
- Location
- upstate nj
Someone decided to get some .5 hand taps...couldn't power tap worth a shit. We thought we had bad taps lol.
You did. They’re called hand taps.
eKretz
Diamond; Mod Squad
- Joined
- Mar 27, 2005
- Location
- Northwest Indiana, USA
Sometimes there is a difference in "hook" or rake angle that can cause issues. Taps actually specified as hand taps sometimes have higher rake for easier tapping by hand but that higher rake edge won't hold up at higher speeds when power tapping. They may also be a taper tap instead of the ubiquitous plug. There are even serial taps in some sizes, with a set of three being the standard. The last tap used is sized at correct pitch diameter, the other two are smaller in pitch diameter and they are used consecutively in order from smallest to largest to rough and finish the thread. Those aren't too commonly used these days though.
"Relief" angles are also different in some cases. For hand tapping you need some "guidance" from the relief area or the thread can get funky pitch/oversize.
Some machine taps are specified as only suitable for synchronous tapping as there is minimal amount of "guidance"
wippin' boy
Diamond
- Joined
- Sep 14, 2005
- Location
- il.
I break less hand taps when tapping by hand 
