Threadmilling vs Tapping Heads - In Search of Information

I’m looking for solutions thread tapping, does anyone have any insights to this?

Seems thread milling is the latest solution, but I also came across tapping heads - not even sure if those would work on this machine though given heigh restrictions and compatibility with the dewalt router.

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I’ve seen some have success with threadmilling. I don’t think a tapping head is practical - there’s no way to turn the router that slowly.

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(noting that this went unanswered for 10 months, I’ll still throw in my $US0.02…)

If the threading must be done on the CNC, thread milling is it with these machines. It is a well established process, but you will need to run test pieces with the tooling to be used and good CAM software. Thread mills need to be specified with the thread spec in mind, to have proper clearance, access, and give proper thread form, as the tool is not strictly a form tool, due to the helix.

As @mikep said, these spindles run way too fast for a tapping head, and as you suspect, there wouldn’t be space.

I do mill threads, but especially if there are a lot of holes, I generally pilot on the CNC and tap on the drill press with a tapping head (or hand tap, if appropriate). It is faster and taps are cheaper than thread mills for volume work.

I tend to mill odd size threads where I don’t have a tap (or die), singletons where the time is small and setting up tap/die will take longer, cases where using a tap/die may risk the part for other reasons (material type, for example), and cases where there won’t be room for the tap (or die) to do the job (external threading a stud machined in a pocket-- a feature that was not possible any other way, since there wasn’t material thickness to use a stud insert in a tapped hole without going through, which would have then required more work to seal, and so on)

There were some previous threads on this:

Agree that thread milling is the way to go.