Taps my dear. (and a lot of them by hand)
I lived and traveled throughout China, traveled over 22,000 miles, and visited many machine shops.
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I wish they would quit keeping all the good taps for themselves and selling me all the junk ones, lol.
I bought a used tapping head for the drill press, a while back.
An internal shaft was bent, and it wobbled to bad, but I learned a little about taps.
These are what I use now.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/1-2-13-H3-Spiral-Flute-Bottom-Stainless-ANSI-CNC-HSSE-V3-Hardslick-Tap-YG1-D2563-/171303531297?hash=item27e27c7321:g:G2UAAMXQrhdTT~0Q
$25.00
You can put them in a drill, or lathe tail stock and just go to town.
No back and forth, just drill 
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You can get good quality gear from China which is manufactured there — you just have to buy from a vendor which is able to impose suitable QC controls, which entails a commensurate price.
Really looking forward to my next Made in China tool, an imported “Chopstick Master” from Bridge City Tools (the previous one was a pair of traditional Chinese scissors which I purchased as a birthday present for my sister for her scherenschnitte (traditional German ornamental paper-cutting)
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That’s the thing about China. We can get great products (iPhone, TV’s, Computers), and a lot of junk too. It needs to be managed very closely to maintain quality. So it is possible.
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Any recommendation for an inexpensive hand tapper like yours?
These guys are great, and luckily for me, that are nearby.
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Hand Tapper, Mini (Goes on sale for: $49) <—LOVE this thing.
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Check out their Milling Vises too. (they start at $39)
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Great Job Rich! I love to see you pushing the envelope and seeing what the machines can do. You are a master, and we can all learn so much from you. Thanks for sharing!
Fred
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Thanks, I just wish I had a pretty picture (without a background) of an S3 with the Black Aluminum base plate.
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Rich did you ever get cheaper thread mills made? I would be very interested.
The cheapest I have found are from “roguesystemsinc” on ebay for $20 - $25:
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I did get some quotes (5) but all the prices were more than I hoped. So…I’m still looking…
I have a 3/4-12 thread on my project list, and will probably make this thread mill too (since a 12 TPI single form thread mill runs in the $50 range…and I can make it for $0)
This is an interesting thread. Being a relative newbie, it would great to see the milling operation on video.
I was inspired by Richards threading operations that I sourced a thread mill from China (Richard’s ability to produce his own is beyond my skill level!).
It’s really amazing to use - I do a fair amount of M5 threading on aluminium parts I make.
Here is a quick video - I think I was making an M8 thread at the time:
Maybe Carbide3D could be convinced to carry a few thread mills in their store? Might be able to source a reasonable quantity for a reasonable sum.
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@Luke sales a nice little set over at https://www.beavercnc.co.uk/product-page/thread-milling-kit (when they are in stock)
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Once you are able to cut threads on your Shapeoko - you automatically want to use them in all your projects!
I’m just in the process of mounting a 2.2kW spindle on my machine. To counterbalance the extra weight, I wanted to beef up the springs quite a bit. This plate give me some spring anchor points that allow for some preload on my new springs. Of course - holes were all threaded on the Shapeoko easy peasy:
And with the spindle mounted and springs installed:
Now - onto the wiring and plumbing…
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Thank you Graham @3DGG for posting the video. Maybe someone could post what common CAD/CAM software besides F360 can produce these threads; MeshCAM?
Vectric V-Carve Pro and Aspire can do threads with a gadget, but I haven’t tried it. There’s a free gadget for it here
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What spindle is that @3DGG? Has a better external finish than what I typically see of chinesium spindles.
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Where did you source them from?