Drilling & tapping

stork · Post by **stork** » Thu May 07, 2015 5:28 pm

Well, I picked up 2 older MKII's. A 5 1/2" blue and a Stainless 5 1/2" 22/45. As they were older ones neither came drilled & tapped. so I ordered a couple Weigand bases and went to work.

thanks for the drilling template Bullseye.

I've done a few blued ones over the years, so no issues there. Just be careful, measure twice-drill once-measure twice-drill a few thousandths more, etc.

The stainless was a lot tougher steel. Now I had only used that tap for the 3 other holes in the blued one, so it's still in very good shape. Starter tap for the rear, but the two blind holes in front were very hard to keep in line as I'm using a finishing tap. Never broke the tap (haven't done that for a very long time, not fun), but I swore it was about 5 inch pounds from snapping more than once. Lots of Do Drill and cleaning out the hole & tap about every half turn.

Finally did finish about 2 am, put on Ultra Dots and benched them. Mama was gone so I was free to shoot in the middle of the night without disturbing anyone.

It was a very good day!

Al

bgreenea3 · Post by **bgreenea3** » Thu May 07, 2015 7:25 pm

Post by **Bullseye** » Fri May 08, 2015 6:15 am

Glad you accomplished your task and got your mounts installed.

R,
Bullseye

blue68f100 · Post by **blue68f100** » Fri May 08, 2015 12:52 pm

Glad you had success. Working with SS can be a challenge. It also helps to use a good cutting oil and new high quality taps. I like using a drill press/end mill to drill and hold the tap position while tapping. Before moving over to the next position. Working with small fine thread taps, they break so easy.....

I had some exotic SS for work that was so tough that the machinist would make a 1" pass then back and replace the solid carbide 3/16" endmill. I ended up ordering a case of double ended end mills for that job. That stuff was hard and work hardened even more once the cutter got dull. They sure were glad when that job finished.

stork · Post by **stork** » Fri May 08, 2015 3:37 pm

I have a good drill press, but no mill. So I guess I could have used the press to keep things aligned. My issue is that you don't have the same "feel" when doing things with a press. And, all my tapping experiences have been by hand, I know what that feels like. I just wouldn't trust myself any other way.

blue68f100 · Post by **blue68f100** » Fri May 08, 2015 6:48 pm

You actually put a pilot in the drill to hold the tap/handle vertical on a center. Most have a center cut in them. You still turn the tap by hand, so you have the feel. You just keep enough pressure on the center to keep it straight. This eliminates the chance of breaking the tap due to alignment.

Post by **Bullseye** » Fri May 08, 2015 8:59 pm

I use the quill on the mill to achieve the same level of stability for the tap.

R,
Bullseye

charlesb · Post by **charlesb** » Fri May 08, 2015 10:20 pm

I use the drill-press and its vice when I can. Sometimes though, I have to tap by hand. Either way, using a tap always makes me a bit nervous, so I take it extra slow.

Once I had to tap a hole for a Winchester shotgun and it required a 1/4-24 tap. The odd-ball tap was hard to find, but finally I found one at a Harley Davidson dealer, of all places. Apparently there's something on older Harleys that uses 1/4-24.