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Broken Tap...

22/8/2012

4 Comments

 
Printing with the Portabee has been a frustrating affair. I've the print head melting the previous layers resulting in mashed up jobs. The initial suspect was the Z couplers coming loose. I tried tightening up the set screws and the 2 nuts till one of them gave way. Given the current state of the printer, I'm unable to print a replacement.

I thought of seeking help from Mike, who kindly printed the Y end stop holder for me using his latest toy - The Replicator 3D. But I don't want to trouble anymore than I already did. The only solution presented to me is to make the coupler out of aluminium. Should be a simple job.

I went on with the job. Got a good start. This is how it looked before the set screw hole was done.
Picture
Looking good!
The idea of using a nut to hold the M6 threaded rod came from Mike. I find it a simple solution but am concern that it may come loose easily. Maybe a drop of Loctite will cover that issue.

I brought the coupler back into the mill to drill & tap for M3 set screw. This was where I got into trouble - the tap broke.

It started with the tap going into the 2.5mm hole without cutting any thread. It kind of like bore through the hole, enlarging it on the way in. I rotated the job around to try again. The bite came mid way into the hole and despite my constant clearing and reversing the tap to break the chip, I somehow manage to break the tap alone with the chip.
Picture
I don't remember having problem tapping in aluminium. The smallest I ever gotten down to was M4, just a week or two back. The feel while tapping M3 is not good. Don't understand why it didn't bite into the work. Maybe I should try a bigger size.

The printer still stand in pieces...
4 Comments
Mike
22/8/2012 09:02:47 am

Bro, u should drill dia. 2.6 on the safe side. Use tapmatic.

Reply
Loke-Yeow Wong
22/8/2012 11:49:52 am

Thanks Mike. I'm using Tapmatic (always give me a headache). I stick to 2.5mm as I always though drill will create a bigger than nominal size hole.

Reply
Gene King
23/8/2012 03:48:04 am

Wong, just my thoughts on tapping in general. Use the best quality tap you can find. When at Electro Scientific if I broke a tap of my own I could go to the tool crib and trade for a new one. They always replaced the the tap size for size with a two flute gun tap. They never broke, I still have them. All my three and four flute taps eventually broke and were broken and replaced with the gun taps.
They push the swarf forward through the hole. On blind holes you do have to remove the swarf often.

GeneK

Reply
Loke-Yeow Wong
25/8/2012 02:21:53 pm

Gene,

Strange that I didn't receive any notification of your comment pending approval. Saw it sitting in the pending tab when I was about to edit an earlier post.

I'll try again tapping M3 in aluminium to see if the HSS tap is indeed more superior than the carbon steel ones. But I believe they are as shared by many experienced folks in many forums.

Getting the Portabee to print right is rather frustrating. I have many bad prints that I didn't report. I'm hoping to get started on printing parts for you and another friend so that you folks have something to begin experimenting with. The Makerbot Replicator is indeed superior than this low cost solution I bought. But it's size and cost are something I've to seriously think about if I'm jumping in.

Hope to start printing again soon.

Regards,
Wong

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