Ian down london way
Established Member
After a break
Its been a while, lots of things going on. Unrelated was a busy xmas, but after xmas, I got to the stage of trying to do the tapping - and had LOTS of problems.
First, was that yet again I had chosen the wrong wall thickness for the tubes of both aluminium and stainless steel. I HATE IMPERIAL UNITS!
So that picture earlier, with that nice brass tube set in, were all rubbish.
I bought some taps from ebay - all of which say they are 8/32. These are really small.
And when the taps disappeared into the tube barely touching the side, I realized I has screwed it up again (or rather, not been able to screw it up).
So, having got some stronger advice on what tubes to get, I was finally able to order the right tubes - and wouldn't you know it, the supplier had mucked up his web site (mixing SWG with decimals of an inch - and getting it wrong) so I got yet again the wrong side tubes - ARGH.
The supplier was actually very good, told me to keep the incorrectly sized tubing (his fault) and send me some more.
YEA !
So now, I just had to actually tap the stuff.
being a woodworker, I'd never tapped anything before, and didn't realize I needed something to hold the taps.
Managed to borrow a tap set, but the handle was way too large. Finally managed to get a small enough handle from a friend at work, and I was away at last - only took two months !
But then of course, I wasn't able to get it to work. They just wouldn't start to bite!
GRRR
Two weeks later, I finally grasped that I needed to drill out a more accurate hole in the tubing (1/8th inch seemed right), and finally got my first tap done - good heavens that was more difficult than it should have been !
I must admit, it does feel good to feel how easily the bolts screw into the tubing.
So, finally, I can show a few assemblies with metal attachments!
On a roll.
Of course, I hadn't quite reckoned on the difficulty of working in stainless steel
((
Back to ebay - but at least I know its possible now.
More to come.
Its been a while, lots of things going on. Unrelated was a busy xmas, but after xmas, I got to the stage of trying to do the tapping - and had LOTS of problems.
First, was that yet again I had chosen the wrong wall thickness for the tubes of both aluminium and stainless steel. I HATE IMPERIAL UNITS!
So that picture earlier, with that nice brass tube set in, were all rubbish.
I bought some taps from ebay - all of which say they are 8/32. These are really small.
And when the taps disappeared into the tube barely touching the side, I realized I has screwed it up again (or rather, not been able to screw it up).
So, having got some stronger advice on what tubes to get, I was finally able to order the right tubes - and wouldn't you know it, the supplier had mucked up his web site (mixing SWG with decimals of an inch - and getting it wrong) so I got yet again the wrong side tubes - ARGH.
The supplier was actually very good, told me to keep the incorrectly sized tubing (his fault) and send me some more.
YEA !
So now, I just had to actually tap the stuff.
being a woodworker, I'd never tapped anything before, and didn't realize I needed something to hold the taps.
Managed to borrow a tap set, but the handle was way too large. Finally managed to get a small enough handle from a friend at work, and I was away at last - only took two months !
But then of course, I wasn't able to get it to work. They just wouldn't start to bite!
GRRR
Two weeks later, I finally grasped that I needed to drill out a more accurate hole in the tubing (1/8th inch seemed right), and finally got my first tap done - good heavens that was more difficult than it should have been !
I must admit, it does feel good to feel how easily the bolts screw into the tubing.
So, finally, I can show a few assemblies with metal attachments!
On a roll.
Of course, I hadn't quite reckoned on the difficulty of working in stainless steel
((
Back to ebay - but at least I know its possible now.
More to come.
