I met the woman of my dreams…
That was foolish enough to date me….
Who when ringing in the new millenium asked me to marry her…
Who 3 years later became my wife…
Who 5 years later became the mother of my son…
…Who after all this time, makes my heart melt and instantly brightens my day with just the sound of her voice.
I love you Steph
Carl
This Tutorial was written By Jeriah who originally posted it on Zombie Squad. I obtained his permission to repost it on my website.
And since I was looking through the archive I kept of the farm site I figures why not a 2 for thursday. 2 Posts about tools on the day named after the god of the working man THOR. So here is the second post in our 2fer enjoy
Before tempering the head, I took advantage of the soft state of the metal to file out some nicks in the edge.
1. Put a loop of wire through the eye as a grab loop, put a stick through that, and set the axe head in the fire, with the cutting edge in the hottest part of the bed of coals.
2. Had a tin can big enough for the axe head to fit in ready, put about 1″ of water in the bottom.
3. When the axe head was cherry red, I put a stick through the loop of wire, and dipped the axe head, edge first, into the can. The edge went into the water and cooled super fast, becoming hard. The rest of the head, esp. the eye, cooled slowly, staying soft. We removed the axe head from the water, allowing some of the heat to migrate, so the axe head got a “gradient temper,” hard at the edge, soft at the eye, transitioning gradually.
4. Scratch test. We weren’t sure what kind of steel this was; the axe was originally an Atlanta Cutlery throwing tomahawk made in India. So after it had cooled, Abe hit it with a file in a couple places to test its hardness. Even after tempering, the file cut it easily even by the edge, telling us that it was mild steel. So, its not going to hold an edge like tool steel would; just means I’ll have to sharpen it alot.
5. Putting a nice black finish on the axe head: Brushed the axe head with a wire brush, then put the head back in the fire, but didn’t allow it to get hot enough to glow. Filled that old can with dirty motor oil. Got the head warm/hot. Dunked it in the motor oil, which caught on fire and made lots of smoke. Put it back in the fire to burn the oil into the surface of the metal. Brushed it again, more heat, then more oil. Wiped off the excess with a rag.
6. Put the head on the handle I made for it out of a piece of fruit wood (cherry or plum I think). The handle is tapered, so the whole handle passes through the eye, instead of just sticking it on the end. I prefer this because there’s no way the head can fly off the handle. The head had to be forced the last couple inches up the haft by hitting it with a hammer. Then I added a nail in the top of the handle, as a wedge.
7. Finished sharpening it using an aluminum oxide sharpening stone.
the only bad thing about an oil finish is that you need to maintain it because if not it will rust
There ya have it 2 tutorials to help the home handy man/woman maintain their tools and thread stuff I hope you have enjoyed reading them as much as we had writing them. Because unlike most of the other keyboard commando’s out there we actually tried it and it either worked or it didn’t. The stuff that does not work is not worth writing about.
Until tomorrow
Carl
Well campers I was asked a question on Yahoo Messenger where someone was looking for the old Metal Tapping Tutorial that I had posted on Idunnasgrove.com in the forums section. They seemed to be nervous that I took that site down as they referenced it from time to time to run through the tutorials So here in its entirety is
How-to Tap Threads in Metal ( Tutorial )
OK First thing I want to say is that to ensure proper tool life you need to go slow Hand tools are the best. I have never burnt out a bit or die by taking my time and doing it carefully.
First you would want to Anneal the Iron if possible By heating to non magnetic and allowing to cool in the ash bucket over night. (this is only if you are manufacturing a new piece annealing the steel makes it softer so that your drill and the tap cut better it can be skipped)
If you are repairing something that cannot be heated skip the heat treating steps. ( engine blocks , Etc )
So you have what you want to put a threaded hole in. Now you need to get the proper tools for the job
Sometimes a Standard Fractional drill bit will be just fine. However if you drill the hole too small you are likely to break the tap if you drill the hole too large you are likely to cut threads that are easy to strip out.
The nice thing is that the most common tap sizes have a corrosponding drill bit size. keep theese specal bits with the taps to ensure that they dont get ruined or lost.
Tap Size Drill Size Nearest Fractional Size (inches)
#4-40 #43 3/32
#6-32 #36 7/64
#8-32 #29 9/64
#10-32 #21 5/32
#10-24 #25 5/32
#12-24 #16 11/64
1/4-20 #7 13/64
1/4-28 #3 7/32
4 mm x .70 #30 1/8
4 mm x.75 1/8″ 1/8
5 mm x .8 #19 11/64
5 mm x .9 #20 5/32
6mmxl #9 13/64
7 mm x 1 15/64 15/64
8mmxl “J” 9/32
8 mm x l.25 17/64 17/64
9 mm x 1 5/16″ 5/16
9 mm x l.25 5/16 5/16
10 mmx 1.25 11/32 11/32
l0 mm x l.5 “R” 11/32So to start the process you will want to use a center punch to mark the metal to start drilling this little divot that gets punched in the piece will allow the drill bit to bite into it and start cutting easily with out skipping around.
The key to drilling in metal is to use a slow speed and a quality cutting oil.
The Slow speed keeps the drill bit cooler then a high speed drill and the cutting oil cools and lubricates the bit and what is being drilled into.I personally use an antique ACME drill press as it turns as slow as I can manually crank the handle and the depth screw is only as hard or soft as my hand pressure However a Slow hand drill or drill press on its slowest setting 150 RPM is Ideal. If you use a Drill press there are low cost Machinist vices that bolt to the bottom plate that will hold what you are working on securely, so that in the event of a failue you dont end up drilling into your hand.
After you have your hole drilled comes the fun part. Place the corresponding tap into the 2 handled holder apply a little cutting oil (specal oils for high speed drilling or any oil for low speed, If aluminum use kerosine) on to the tap and into the hole and start turining the tap by hand in the proper direction to cut the desired threads.
To cut the threads and clean out the chips they will accumulate in the flutes of the tap. in long strips to break them up so that they will come out of the flutes. You need to turn the tap backwards. Basically for every 1/3 to 1/2 turn of cutting you need to back out 1/4-1/2 turn.
For deep tapping you will need to back out the tap completely clean out the chips reoil the tap and then continue the tapping till you reach the desired depth.
The key to Tapping holes in metal is that you need to be careful to not apply lateral force when turning the tap as since it is extremely hard it will snap off instead of bending. And if it snaps off you will most likely not be able to remove it as they tend to be harder then the drill bits that would be used to drill them out.
Ther are 3 types of Taps A bottoming tap, and intermediate tap, and a taper tap.
The Taper tap uses a tapered thread pattern to ease the tap into the cutting of the threads gradually cutting them to the desired demesions.
The Intermediate tap tapers just before the bottom and relieves the stress off the first few threads of the tap.
The bottoming tap is the same diamater all the way down and is used to finish out the tapped hole.
A buddy that works in a foundry after reading the above tutorial sent a message with the following in it
Wassail Carl
Well I would like to add some comments. One is in regards to chip load and the other is the type of drill bits and taps available to make your cutting more effective.
1. Chip load- In essence your comments on slow speed are well founded. But friction is only one factor in poor drill performance. By running at too low of a speed your chip load increases. This places more strain upon the tip of the drill. The bit may walk or chatter or even fracture. I would reccomend a copy of the Machinists Handbook. Even an old used copy will still have an inexhaustive amount of information for the home shop. The other is to look at the metal chips themselves. Chips should form into a perfect #6 (or 9). Chips with too tight a curl indicate excessive feed pressure or speed. Chips should be cool and the same color as the material your working with. Blued or blackend chips indicate too much friction (excessive speed or feed pressure). Good cutting oil or fluid is important. It is possible to heat treat the item you are machining. This is called work hardening.
2. There are a variety of of drills and taps for specific applications. Split point drills have good surface penetration for steel. Hi-Spiral drills and taps are use for tapping blind holes where chipped binding occurs (especially in softer metals). Titanium Nitride is a good surface coating to increase tool life but its a little more expensive. Carbide has excellent wear capabilities but may fracture do to excessive stress. Again the Machinists Handbook is invaluable. A bit of research will produce a well done project with a minimum amount of headaches.
Rick
There ya have it folks a nice little tutorial on how to tap metal.
axe tempering
Thread tapping