T & M Machine

Tapping Machine Paces Shop Growth

Rick Creley, owner of T & M Machine in Vancouver, WA, had a problem. After being in business for six years, he began to see his workload substantially increase, but some of his equipment couldn't perform the jobs accurately and fast enough.

His job shop specializes in multiple-line air manifolds, and the business growth in this area led to a review of some of the shop's manufacturing processes. "We are a fast-turnaround job shop and must save time anywhere we can," Creley says. "However, at the same time, quality and accuracy are essential."

As more jobs came through the shop, tapping became a major problem. "In the past, we did most of our work on tapping heads with drill presses. But some of our parts needed closer tolerances, and we found that the heads were not accurate enough," Creley reports.

The company tried other methods with little success, and Creley was out of options until he saw an advertisement for the Accu-Tapper. "We contacted Lite Specialty Metal Works and purchased a unit," Creley explains.

The machine went to work tapping aluminum air manifolds with 1/8" pipe taps, and the operation was an immediate success. "We had real problems with these parts trying to get an accurate thread depth," says Creley. "But we never had that problem with the Accu-Tapper. It was amazing how controllable the depth is," he continues. "We tapped 10,000 holes, and every one was right on the money."

Along with providing accurate depth, the tapping machine is faster than past methods. "These same 10,000 holes used to take about three days with a tapping head, but only eight hours on the Accu-Tapper," Creley notes.

The T & M staff has brought many more jobs to the Accu-Tapper, including chamfering, countersinking, thread chasing, and tapping in plastic and steel. "We just completed a job that had 6,000 10-24 holes in stainless steel and never broke a tap on this machine," Creley reports. "We have also developed several different fixtures for round and odd-shaped parts that can't be hand-held," he continues. "There's not a single job run on the machine that takes more than ten minutes to set up."

Safety officer Charlene Ender agreed: "I use it probably more than anyone, and, in my opinion, it is a godsend. I would recommend it to all shops."

And Creley adds, "It saves a lot of wear and tear on Charlene! It's the most user-friendly machine we have— and one of the lowest priced. I plan on having it for a long time."