Regrinding taps - is it worth it?

Taps, like any other precision tool, follow a natural lifecycle. Eventually, even the finest taps will wear out and lose their effectiveness. You may have a drawer full of taps that are now dull or unable to create clean threads due to chipped edges or cold welding. Using a damaged tap can lead to poor quality results or even damage to the component being worked on. However, this doesn’t necessarily mean that your worn-out tap needs to be thrown away. Fortunately, taps can often be reground. While not all types of wear can be fixed through this process, many common signs of wear can be corrected, allowing you to use the tool again effectively. This not only helps conserve resources but also saves you money. That said, there are several things to keep in mind when considering regrinding taps. Let’s explore these details further.

When Should You Resharpen a Tap?

How do you know if your tap needs resharpening? Often, you’ll notice it during use. If your threads aren’t turning out as accurately as they used to, it’s likely that wear on the tap is the cause. By the time this happens, it might already be too late. To avoid such issues, regularly inspect your tap after each use for signs of damage, dulled cutting edges, or cold welding. Mark any taps that are no longer in optimal condition for resharpening and take them out of circulation before attempting to cut another thread.

Points to Focus On When Resharpening a Tap

What does it mean to resharpen a tap? Resharpening primarily involves working on the lead, but the rake faces are also considered.

Resharpening the Lead of the Tap

The chamfer experiences the bulk of the workload during tapping, making it the area where most wear occurs. When resharpening a tap, the chamfer often needs to be slightly reduced to eliminate all traces of wear. For the tap to function as well as before, the lead length, set angle, and lead clearance angle are crucial factors. These variables are therefore the primary focus during the resharpening process. The diameter of the lead must also be calculated precisely.

Resharpening taps with a peel cut is a unique case. Special devices capable of horizontal and vertical adjustment are used to properly set the peel cut inclination and angle.

Resharpening the Rake Face of the Tap

While wear mostly affects the cutting edge area, this doesn’t mean other parts of the tap can’t suffer damage. To address these issues, the rake faces are also taken into account during resharpening. The rake angle is the key here, and it must remain unchanged during the grinding process. The rake angle is measured on the tool before resharpening and verified afterward. Success is only achieved if the correct value is maintained.

Key Considerations During the Sharpening Process

Sharpening taps is a delicate task that requires precise coordination of various factors. It begins with selecting the appropriate grinding wheel. These come in different materials and shapes, depending on the diameter and shape of the tap grooves. Once the right grinding wheel is chosen, the swivel angle must also be set correctly.

Next, it must be decided whether to perform dry or wet grinding. Wet grinding generally yields better results but isn’t always feasible. Additionally, the infeed size and feed rate impact how effectively the tap can be resharpened and how much wear the grinding wheel itself experiences.

Finally, deburring is essential after resharpening. Each grinding process leaves burrs that could negatively affect the cutting performance of the tool. Therefore, removing these burrs from the tap post-grinding is critical.

Can You Resharpen Your Taps Yourself?

Despite appearances, taps are highly intricate tools with numerous precisely coordinated diameters, angles, and lengths. A slight deviation in any of these elements beyond the intended tolerance can render the tap incapable of producing flawless, dimensionally accurate threads. Such deviations can easily occur when attempting to resharpen a tap. Before proceeding with resharpening, a tap must be thoroughly evaluated to determine the nature of the damage and the exact steps needed for repair. This is precisely why resharpening taps is a task best left to professionals. Experience and the right equipment are essential for accurately determining the actual and target values and carrying out all necessary calculations flawlessly. Before attempting to resharpen your own taps, it’s advisable to seek help from a professional provider. Otherwise, instead of saving money, you may incur additional costs!

We happen to know someone you can trust! If you’re looking for reliable tap resharpening services, BAER’s regrinding service is the perfect choice. We consistently deliver quick, clean, and dependable results, maximizing the potential of your worn taps. Interested? Please reach out to our customer service team with your inquiry.