Broken tap removal

Gunsmithing Workbench
1

Any ideas on removing a broken tap. My EDM machine is down so that option is out.

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2

left hand carbide drill bit

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3

easy out extractor if you can find a good one that doesn’t break :facepalm:

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4

How small?

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5

mig/tig welder and a nut…

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6

Taps are very hard so drilling is out unless you have a solid carbide end mill and a mill.
They are vert brittle as well, as you know, I have had sucess grinding a small hardened steel punch/chisel and breaking them up the rest of the way. Don’toverheatthepunch when grinding. If you can get to the back side with whatever you were tapping use the punch at an angle, sometimes you can get it to chip and rotate out.
Really need to put workpiece in a solid fixture or vise to have much luck.
Good luck, how about some photos of your agonizing project!
Edit someone told me to heat the workpiece similar situation didn’t try it but might help

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7

6-36 tap

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8

Bottoming tap

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9

I got a carbide drill bit on the way

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10

Have to go really slow with a drill press or mill, like a thousandth at a time. Only thing in shop more brittle then a tap is a carbide bit!. I didn’t see if you posted size of broken tap. larger taps give some options little ones don’t. Once you get it out, do you have the option of upsizing the hole?

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11

Everything that @albroswift said, and, start with an endmill, about 3/32" .Cleanup the broken surface of the tap.( make it flat) otherwise the drill bit will walk to the side of least resistance and break. After the surface is cleaned up, try a 1/8" end mill or carbide center drill for a starter hole , otherwise the drill will walk off center and break. For me, I usually use endmills only, especially for small taps. Switch between the larger and smaller endmills as you peck away at it.

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12

Your best bet on a 6-32 is probably to use a center punch in the chuck of drill press or small vertical mill and center on the hole. and see if you can chip it out. If you get that carbide drill stuck in there you will have to burn both it and the tap out. Don’t think a tap extractor that small would hold up hold up, but you could always try it. Were you at the bottom when the tap broke, or did the hole just pack up with chips?

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13

It may have been chips that broke these trap.

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14

A couple drops of liquid nitrogen then smack it with a punch.

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15

ew sounds fun :yep:

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16

What is the tap/hole in? On safes sometimes I can hit it with a hard punch and shatter it. If not, have you ever used a tapered pin? You enlarge the hole (somehow) and taper it with a tapered reamer. Then you drive the tapered pin into the hole, cut it flush, and you can’t tell where the hole was and you can drill a new one.

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17

The hole is in my 2011. I would like to remove the broken tap and finish tapping the hole. Liquid nitrogen sounds great. I got some -60degree cold spray it worked on the first tap i broke not the second.

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18

Where do you use a bottom tap on a 2011?
Asking for a friend

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forward thumb rest. Its not a standard part. I had areal rough day at work yesterday worked a 17 hour shift doing someone else’s job (mechanical maintenance). The upside is I found out that the Geology Test lab may a one point in time kept liquid nitrogen. The guy that told me doesn’t know if they still use it but if nothing else the should still have a dewar flask.

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20

Seems like people around here know more about broken taps then weapons!
I rarely break a tiny tap because I know its fragile, 5-40’s and 4-56’s all day long, but snapped off a 1/4-28 recently. Got to try pretty hard to do that.

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