Tayda 125b won't screw closed? - Use a Machine Tap!

I only use two screws on my enclosures. Is usually find the hole that works best, and then try and work with whatever the opposite diagonal hole is like…
 
Has anyone actually told Hugo about this as I have never had to use a tap.
I have had 1/2 a dozen that I have screwed the screw in & out a couple of times to tip some debri out.
My biggest issue was 2 light gold enclosures came with the protective plastic physically stuck to the Enclosures & it tore the powder coat off!
Hugo gave me a Credit for them.
 
music6000 said:
I have had 1/2 a dozen that I have screwed the screw in & out a couple of times to tip some debri out.
Click to expand...

This. Screw em in, unscrew em, screw em in again.

music6000 said:
My biggest issue was 2 light gold enclosures came with the protective plastic physically stuck to the Enclosures & it tore the powder coat off!
Hugo gave me a Credit for them.
Click to expand...

Same here. Only happened once but Hugo made good on that.
 
Just had a new enclosure tonight with a piece of carbide, I guess from the end of the tap, broke off inside one hole. Luckily, I had enough thread to get the lid screw started, so I tightened it down to crunch up the little s.o.b..
 
TL-DR: this was stupid simple to fix.

I wanted to circle back on this and share my experience to you guys or anyone else in the future that needs to do this. I pulled the trigger on a machine tap from Amazon. $4 and I'll (hopefully) never have to get another one for a long time? Sold.

Of course I had first time jitters: taking the time to drill, paint, and finish an enclosure just to find out that I can't screw the lid on. I clearly didn't want to ruin it all over a stupid drill bit. Had this just been a bare enclosure I would have had a different attitude about it.

Anyways, I read over all your comments here for any tips how to do this. I mean, it's just a stupid drill bit. How hard can this be? I put the bit on my hand drill, sprayed the tip with some WD40 to protect everything, and went slow. After a second or two I realized it was working! I kept going until I hit the bottom (or at least when the bit stopped going smoothly) and backed it out. Lo and behold, the screw went in just fine!

Lesson learned: sometimes you just gotta try something new and stop worrying. What's the worst that could happen? You'll have to build it all over again. You know how much we hate building, right? :ROFLMAO:
 
BuddytheReow said:
I put the bit on my hand drill
Click to expand...

BuddytheReow said:
What's the worst that could happen?
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FYI - The worst that could happen is you bottom the tap into the bottom of the hole too hard using your drill, the tap snaps off flush, and you have a piece of hardened steel permanently lodged in your screw hole.

I'd always try running the tap into the hole with just your fingers first. That may be enough to get a little bit of paint out on it's own. If there's too much resistance, I'd switch to a tap wrench, but a little adjustable wrench or pliers could also get the job done.
 
When I was restoring a motorbike I bought an inexpensive set of taps and dies because they're really handy for getting paint and powdercoat out of threads, and you never know what else.

Then I found that I had a die the exact right size for threading a Strat wammy bar. I really don't like having a wammy bar sit too high, so I threaded it as high as I could and snipped a bit off the bottom so that now the bar sits nice and low in the bridge block. A little plumber's tape and it's nice and firm and feels great. (That's what she said).
 
Erik S said:
FYI - The worst that could happen is you bottom the tap into the bottom of the hole too hard using your drill, the tap snaps off flush, and you have a piece of hardened steel permanently lodged in your screw hole.

I'd always try running the tap into the hole with just your fingers first. That may be enough to get a little bit of paint out on it's own. If there's too much resistance, I'd switch to a tap wrench, but a little adjustable wrench or pliers could also get the job done.
Click to expand...
I use one of these

 
Erik S said:
FYI - The worst that could happen is you bottom the tap into the bottom of the hole too hard using your drill, the tap snaps off flush, and you have a piece of hardened steel permanently lodged in your screw hole.

I'd always try running the tap into the hole with just your fingers first. That may be enough to get a little bit of paint out on it's own. If there's too much resistance, I'd switch to a tap wrench, but a little adjustable wrench or pliers could also get the job done.
Click to expand...
Bottoming tap would reduce risk, as would the use of cutting fluid (this is aluminum so wd40 is often better than fancy expensive fluid

There are special extractors for broken taps, however not likely to be found for smaller ones like this. So what did my machinist friend tell me to do when I broke off #4 or #6 taps? Hit the broken tap with a center punch (PLEASE WEAR SAFETY GLASSES!!) and it will likely shatter… then pick out the pieces with a machinists scribe. Since taps are extremely hard, it makes them very brittle (why they break easily), so smacking them with a center punch ( the kind you use a hammer with- not the auto type) takes advantage of that to make them crumble and easy to pick out.
 
Giorfida said:
Bottoming tap would reduce risk, as would the use of cutting fluid (this is aluminum so wd40 is often better than fancy expensive fluid

There are special extractors for broken taps, however not likely to be found for smaller ones like this. So what did my machinist friend tell me to do when I broke off #4 or #6 taps? Hit the broken tap with a center punch (PLEASE WEAR SAFETY GLASSES!!) and it will likely shatter… then pick out the pieces with a machinists scribe. Since taps are extremely hard, it makes them very brittle (why they break easily), so smacking them with a center punch ( the kind you use a hammer with- not the auto type) takes advantage of that to make them crumble and easy to pick out.
Click to expand...
A bottoming tap will cut threads all the way to the bottom of a hole, but isn't any less likely to snap if you ram it into the bottom of a hole with a drill. Might actually be more likely to snap if the original hole wasn't tapped with a bottoming tap, as your bottoming tap will be cutting new threads toward the bottom instead of just cleaning the junk out. I think the safest option is not to get anywhere near the bottom of the hole, as the overspray is likely to all be in the first couple threads anyway.

WD40 is a good lubricant for cutting threads in aluminum, but for scraping paint out of existing threads, I don't think it's necessary.

There are a lot of strategies for dealing with a broken tap, but I wouldn't call any of them easy.
 
The other approach to this is to cut the screw shorter. For screws up to #8, these work very well. (And on most “included” screws, which are usually shit steel, the larger sizes cut fine too.)


I’m not specifically endorsing this Klein set (although Klein still makes solid tools), but if you go this route, don’t get a cheap version. These are more than one trick ponies, too, I use the crimpers more that I do the screw cutting. Note that all of these work best (for cutting screws) if you have the pivot bolt tighter than you think would be ideal.

I’d also not recommend using a hand drill. You should almost be able to just spin the tap with your fingers, if all you’re doing is chasing paint out of the threads.
 
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