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Make your own taps!!!!.

For plastic only

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#1 hamoidar

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Posted 24 March 2012 - 09:18 AM

In this guide I will be showing you how to make your own plastic taps, or thread makers. We all know the terrible feeling when you drill a hole in one of your guns and start to put a screw in, only to find that half way through, you have cracked the plastic. One option would be to drill a slightly larger hole, but that can compromise strength. The other option would be to tap the hole. Unfortunately tap and die sets are quite expensive ($80), so I wanted to find a solution. First, what is the difference between a tap and a screw? A tap has a groove along the side of the thread, so that when you screw it into a hole, the edge of the groove cuts out the thread and the debris piles up in it. How is this different from a screw? When you screw in a screw, it simply pushes the plastic, since there is no way to cut. Soft plastic generally does not need tapping, as I will show you. But hard plastic does. (most of the time)

Here is soft plastic. (PVC)
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Here is a harder plastic, with the same screw, same hole. (Plexiglas)
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Here is my solution: make your own taps. These taps are not for metal.

You will need only two tools:
Dremel (with metal cutting disc)
Clamp (or pliers)

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Materials:
Any size screw you want to make a tap for.

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Put your screw in the clamp/pliers.
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Take you Dremel and cut a vertical groove along opposite sides of the screw:
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Here is how it works:
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Although it is hard to see, there are now perfect threads inside the hole.
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And that’s it! You can do this with any screw, so you could potentially make a huge set for only a few bucks.
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Edited by hamoidar, 24 March 2012 - 09:43 AM.

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#2 Nurf Doctor

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Posted 24 March 2012 - 10:06 AM

This is a pretty ingenious idea. As long as you are careful and slow, there shouldn't be a problem. This could possibly be applied to tapping holes for NPT fittings. Take a threaded brass fitting of the size you need, and cut the groove. The only foreseeable issue would be getting the edges of the threads at the grooves sharp enough. Other than that, good to go!
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#3 ChaosPropel

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Posted 24 March 2012 - 10:15 AM

Very nice. I actually just saw, yesterday, Stevinmarin on YouTube do this in one of his videos, except he used a file.
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#4 roboman

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Posted 24 March 2012 - 09:18 PM

This is a pretty ingenious idea. As long as you are careful and slow, there shouldn't be a problem. This could possibly be applied to tapping holes for NPT fittings. Take a threaded brass fitting of the size you need, and cut the groove. The only foreseeable issue would be getting the edges of the threads at the grooves sharp enough. Other than that, good to go!


Actually, if you're tapping anything harder than polycarbonate, this will not work. The point of the flutes on a tap are to provide chip clearance, which is also why you drill a hole that is smaller than the minor diameter of the thread. That way, the entire tooth of the tap engages the material, creating a nice, 75% thread form in the hole.

NPT threads are very different animals, and have particular specs that refer to minimum hole depth and taper. If you try to use a pipe fitting as a tap, there's a good chance you could have a tough time getting it to seal (though it sometimes works in PVC), and if you use a different fitting as a "tap," then the one you actually use as a fitting may not work. I can also guarantee that a brass fitting will not tap aluminum or most harder plastics, as brass is extremely soft, as metals go. You're also going to have some issues with the burr created by the dremel when you cut the slot - if you try to file it off, you'll dull the "cutting edge," and if you leave it there, you'll destroy the threads as you create them.

TL;DR: It's almost always easier to go out and buy the appropriate sized tap from a hardware store, Mcmaster, or MSC Direct. If you're trying to do it for pipe fittings, it will actually be cheaper in the long run to simply buy an appropriate-sized tap, rather than spend a bunch of money on expensive brass fittings that you effectively destroy with a Dremel.
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#5 burning-ice

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Posted 24 March 2012 - 11:58 PM

Well, this is one good idea, I believe my dad used to do something of this manner.
Anyway, could you do this with the little orange grinding wheel on a dremel or in a drill chuck?
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#6 hamoidar

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Posted 25 March 2012 - 09:30 AM

Well, this is one good idea, I believe my dad used to do something of this manner.
Anyway, could you do this with the little orange grinding wheel on a dremel or in a drill chuck?

Yes, you could do this with a Dremel grinding wheel. I don't think a drill would work though.
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#7 Carbon

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Posted 25 March 2012 - 10:46 PM

Ingenious, and a good solution considering how few taps nerfers usually need. However, it's worth mentioning that tap sets don't cost anywhere near $80.
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#8 hamoidar

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Posted 26 March 2012 - 01:17 PM

Ingenious, and a good solution considering how few taps nerfers usually need. However, it's worth mentioning that tap sets don't cost anywhere near $80.

Thanks, I have to say I only looked at my Lowes for tap sets, and they only had one for $70...(http://www.lowes.com...aps&facetInfo=' class='bbc_url' title='External link' rel='nofollow external'>Lowes) Ok, not $80, but sets with a wide range of tap sizes are quite expensive. With this method, you can make a large set for about $10.
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#9 Langley

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Posted 26 March 2012 - 01:50 PM

TL;DR: It's almost always easier to go out and buy the appropriate sized tap from a hardware store, Mcmaster, or MSC Direct. If you're trying to do it for pipe fittings, it will actually be cheaper in the long run to simply buy an appropriate-sized tap, rather than spend a bunch of money on expensive brass fittings that you effectively destroy with a Dremel.


Ingenious, and a good solution considering how few taps nerfers usually need. However, it's worth mentioning that tap sets don't cost anywhere near $80.


If it is remotely within your means, just get a real set from someplace like harbor freight. Investing in a proper set of drill bits is also worth it. If you can afford to build a blaster out of polycarbonate, you can afford to get a decent tap and die set. I guess if you're following the SNAP philosophy, this is one way to go, but in my experience drilling the right sized hole and then screwing in a sheet metal screw is typically enough to get the job done.
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