Used to tap every hole by hand, now I let the mill do it and I feel like a cheater

Ivan Young · 2026-10-14T18:05:05.122056+00:00

Back when I started at the shop in 2009, my old boss would not let me touch a tap guide unless I had already run the hole by hand first. He said you learn the feel of the cut that way, and if a tap snaps you know it was your fault and not the machine. For 12 years I did it that way, one hole at a time, pecking every 3 turns and backing out to clear chips, even on a run of 40 brackets. Last month I finally set up rigid tapping on the Haas for a job with 96 holes in 6061 and it ran in under 4 minutes with zero broken taps. Now I am split on whether letting the spindle do all the work is smart or just lazy, since I can not feel anything through the holder anymore. For the guys who have been at this longer than me, did you hold onto hand tapping for small runs or did you switch over completely once rigid tapping got good?

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Used to tap every hole by hand, now I let the mill do it and I feel like a cheater | Auto Mechanics - Librear