Fabmark Industrial Product

Who says that a machine tool must be expensive to be cost effective? While some manufacturers and metalworking facilities continue their search for gained income through high-priced, high-tech automation, many are turning to an economical machine tool that slashes production costs in a variety of applications.

Fabmark Industrial Product of Hillsboro, OR knew how costly and time consuming a tapping operation can be. Before learning about the Accu-Tapper power tapping machine, Fabmark did a majority of its tapping on a drill press with a tapping head, explained production manager Gary Owen. Owen said the Accu-Tapper is a labor saver, cutting his tapping time almost in half. "We ran a part that had 60 hours of quoted tapping time, yet with the Accu-Tapper we completed the job in 32 hours," he said. "The Accu-Tapper paid for itself in its first week of use. It has taken a manual operation and made it a lot faster and easier."

While Fabmark has witnessed the advantage of the tapping machine over a drill press and tapping head, many shops are taking tapping operations off the CNC and handing them over to the Accu-Tapper. The compact size (12-3/4" x 13-1/2" x 7", 35 lbs.) makes the tapping maching portable, as well as being the ideal companion for any machining center. It is designed to work with a wide variery of materials, including plastics. With the Accu-Tapper performing the tapping and chamfering operations, the CNC is free to do what it does best: milling, boring, slotting, etc.

The machine features a stationary chuck spindle and sliding backing plate. Owen demonstrated the speed of tapping by bringing the workpiece up against the backing plate and positioning the hole to be tapped against it. While securely holding the workpiece against the backing plate, Owen applied pressure by pushing the workpiece forward. The tap began its rotation as the free-floating clutch made contact with the sheave-drive pulley. Once the hole was completely threaded, Owen relieved pressure on the workpiece and the spindle reversed rotation. "Our operators like using the Accu-Tapper more than the drill press," stated Owen. "One particular part we often run has 16 holes in it. With the Accu-Tapper's nice, short stroke, you grab the part and boom, boom, boom, it's done." Powering the machine's drive system is a 1/3 HP electric motor. Owen commented that the Accu-Tapper delivers enough power for all the tapping assignments that have passed through Fabmark (although it is not recommended exceeding 1/4-20 steel or 5/16-24 aluminum when tapping, or higher guages when retapping.)

Along with the machine's speed, Owen gave the machine high marks for its extreme sensitivity. He explained that on one job his operators were tapping threads from 4-40 to 8-32 in 1/16" sheet metal. Through the course of 24,000 holes, they never broke a tap. "We wore out three or four taps, but didn't break one... and that just doesn't happen," he said with a smile. "When we bid the job, we figured in $50 for taps, which we came out ahead on." Owen said that the low price of the Accu-Tapper is a bargain. He said, "When you're talking equipment for the shop, the price of the Accu-Tapper is nothing. Just the money it saved on broken taps will pay for that before long, not to mention the man-hours we've already saved. The Accu-Tapper is a must for every shop."