Shopsmith Forums

I'm always finding myself wanting more T-nuts, but find the price a bit steep. Today for something different to do I decided to make T-nuts out of aluminum. All cutting drilling was done on my CNC which like most woodworking tools is ok with aluminum if you take it easy.

My version differs in that all three holes are drilled for a 1/4-20 tap because I find myself using that size screw the most. Any of the holes could be drilled bigger.

The other major difference is that I find the Shopsmith T-nuts to be a bit unforgiving when getting them started in the channel. These nuts are rounded to make for easier and quicker alignment. Of course the Shopsmith nuts are ferrous, so they are definitely more rugged than my aluminum version.

Great job!

I want some LOL

What a great idea!

Nice job!!! I want some too.

Thanks for the kind words fellows! After tapping the first four (see below) I mounted them to my drill vise sled and all is well!

I might make a few more just because, and if I do I'm not going to CNC the holes. The reasons are two-fold:

1) It takes quite a bit of time since I use a 1/8" mill to pocket the holes.

2) I discovered that the PowerPro, set at 250rpm makes a great tapping tool for something as soft as aluminum. So once I have the vise set properly, I can drill, and then have proper alignment to switch over to tapping.

I will probably have the cnc make alignment dimples to help center the twist bit.

I'm also considering making some more-or-less disposable light duty versions out of acrylic sheeting just to see how they work. That is the beauty of a CNC, once you have the design down, you can tweak and play with little work.

I happen to love being able to choose the tool that -- for me -- best suits the job at hand, be it a hand plane, the Shopsmith, or my CNC.

paulrussell wrote:Thanks for the kind words fellows! After tapping the first four (see below) I mounted them to my drill vise sled and all is well!

I might make a few more just because, and if I do I'm not going to CNC the holes. The reasons are two-fold:

1) It takes quite a bit of time since I use a 1/8" mill to pocket the holes.

2) I discovered that the PowerPro, set at 250rpm makes a great tapping tool for something as soft as aluminum. So once I have the vise set properly, I can drill, and then have proper alignment to switch over to tapping.

I will probably have the cnc make alignment dimples to help center the twist bit.

I'm also considering making some more-or-less disposable light duty versions out of acrylic sheeting just to see how they work. That is the beauty of a CNC, once you have the design down, you can tweak and play with little work.

I happen to love being able to choose the tool that -- for me -- best suits the job at hand, be it a hand plane, the Shopsmith, or my CNC.

How do you use a power pro to tap something. I would think you would strip out the tap or cause the tap to snap. They only time I ever saw anybody use power on a tap was a young kid who chucked a tap in a hand drill. Shot pieces of the tap all over the computer room.

Ed in Tampa wrote:

paulrussell wrote:Thanks for the kind words fellows! After tapping the first four (see below) I mounted them to my drill vise sled and all is well!

I might make a few more just because, and if I do I'm not going to CNC the holes. The reasons are two-fold:

1) It takes quite a bit of time since I use a 1/8" mill to pocket the holes.

2) I discovered that the PowerPro, set at 250rpm makes a great tapping tool for something as soft as aluminum. So once I have the vise set properly, I can drill, and then have proper alignment to switch over to tapping.

I will probably have the cnc make alignment dimples to help center the twist bit.

I'm also considering making some more-or-less disposable light duty versions out of acrylic sheeting just to see how they work. That is the beauty of a CNC, once you have the design down, you can tweak and play with little work.

I happen to love being able to choose the tool that -- for me -- best suits the job at hand, be it a hand plane, the Shopsmith, or my CNC.

How do you use a power pro to tap something. I would think you would strip out the tap or cause the tap to snap. They only time I ever saw anybody use power on a tap was a young kid who chucked a tap in a hand drill. Shot pieces of the tap all over the computer room.

That would be my question too. When I first got hired as a civilian with the Air Force I had a trainer ??? that knew less than me. He told me when he worked for his previous company they had lots of holes to tap. They used the tap in a drill press or with a hand drill and broke a lot of taps. He never said how many parts they screwed up.

Don't get me wrong, in production situations with precision metal machining equipment and computer control (CNC) it is done all the time. How do you use a SS in power mode (regardless of the RPM and get it shut off before the threads are damaged)

I'm not recommending it, but this is what I did:

Put tap in chuck.
Set PowerPro to 250 RPM
Put part in vise, with vise closed enough to keep part from spinning but not from lifting.
(In other words as tap fed, part was free to "climb" tap if my feed rate was off a bit.)
Drop of oil on hole.
Positioned tap on part with gentle pressure.
Pushed go.
Once tap was through (or just short of) pushed stop.

Again, it worked like a charm, and at 250rpm it was very manageable. It took about 6 or 8 revolutions to tap, which at 250rpm is 1.5 - 2 seconds. Most of the time I hit stop before it even went all the way through. Maybe next time the tap won't play as well, but today it worked just fine.

Very clever! It's sort of a DIY Tapmatic tapping head. The real ones are use for production applications, so the tap pull-out triggers an internal reversing clutch in the tapping head. But if you're willing to unthread the workpiece by hand after it pulls out of the torque-restraining fixture (Ahem, vise ), it's exactly the same principle.

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_CUGz0jXvWQ[/youtube]

A 'secret' to avoiding breaking taps is the alignment of the tap to the pilot hole.

NO side thrust. NO cocking.



NO impact drills!