metal trouble

[Harry Goodwin]

My son is a locksmith and periodically he breaks off a tap and has the perennial difficulty of getting it out. I told him about seeing tool that slips in the flutes and permits removing the tap without the task of re-drilling which is impossible. Any help in obtaining such a tool. You folks surely are the best resource for nearly everything . Harry

[Bruce Boone]

Harry, I would bet that MSC (www.mscdirect.com (http://www.mscdirect.com)) has such a thing. I will also say that I've NEVER had luck extracting a broken tap simply because the metal had galled so tightly around the tap that it caused it to break. One thing that jewelers do is dissolve the tap using stuff that eats steel such as ferric chloride or some such stuff. Of course, it will only work on metals where the acid won't eat that as well. That would have saved me a lot of grief when I was making titanium bike parts that had to be tapped. I broke off a lot of taps in that stuff.

[Keith Outten]

They are called tap extractors and should be available at any machinist's supply. Sears may also carry them, they did years ago.

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[David Epperson]

My son is a locksmith and periodically he breaks off a tap and has the perennial difficulty of getting it out. I told him about seeing tool that slips in the flutes and permits removing the tap without the task of re-drilling which is impossible. Any help in obtaining such a tool. You folks surely are the best resource for nearly everything . Harry
I've worked in places that had EDM setups for extracting broken taps. This electricly eats the tap body out of the hole. Where I work now we have an EDM threader that can tap the hole in the first place - even in solid tungsten carbide. The threader is not cheap, but the tap removers are and can be made in the home shop. All you need is a drill press, a carbon electrode, a bit of electrolite flushing liquid (I think water will work, though not the best), and the means to run current through the electrode and the work while flushing the hole.

[Harry Goodwin]

Thanks for the help. Harry