any suggestions?
thanks.

EDM.............................

Broken tap remover. Duh.

Or dynamite.

They make tap extractors.  I forget who makes them but they slip down in to the area of the tap without the cutting teeth.  Failing that, holesaw out the entire area if practical.

Rubber mallet to skull.

Then Yellow pages for "Sinker EDM".

If you didnt break off too much tap  in the hole........and the hole isn't a blind hole you can take a ratty pin punch and break the tap out in small pieces......... if your lucky

what is it broken in?worst case scenario,tou can drive it through unless you were using a bottoming tap to a specific depth short of punching through,but thats just a dirty construction worker method not really suied to precission work or expensive pieces.

Any tap left sticking out of the hole?  If so weld a nut to the tap, then back the tap out.

or take a small punch to one of the flutes in the tap and tap it with a hammer to reverse the tap far enough to get vise grips on it.were you using cutting fluid,propper drill size,and the one forward one back tapping method?or just tryin to force a dry tap through a hole made by a bit that looked "close enough"????

Quoted: Any tap left sticking out of the hole?  If so weld a nut to the tap, then back the tap out.

that's what i'd do.

If you have access to refrigerant, like R134a, freeze the tap then (wear safety glasses for this!) with a hammer and a punch give the tap a sharp hit.  Done properly, the tap will shatter and you'll be able to fish the remains out with a magnet.

ETA - But if there's any portion of the tap sticking out, I'd do like the other guys said first and weld a nut to what's left of the tap and try backing it out.

ok.. so it broke off flush.. its not a blind hole, but of course its not sticking through enough to get a hold of the tip. I think I am going to try a carbide tip on my dremel tool.
then I am going to buy a brand new tap to make sure its sharp.. I have no idea how old the one is that I broke.


PS.. its a 12-24 tap... so its small.. but thankfully its not WAY small

tapping stainless is a biotch!!!i feel your pain,good luck.

Take it to a EDM shop and have them remove, its not too bad, and it will save the part, we do it from time to time when we snap a tap in a fuel bike motor plate or something with alot of time into it.

If all else fails take a torch, get the tap red, then tap the oxigen lever. The tap should blow out, The stainless will not cut due to the lack of carbon. I,ve done this a few times with success.

If you were tapping stainless, did you back the tap-off after a couple of turns, then broke the tap?  Many stainless steels work-harden to a very hard level if you back the tap off.  It is best to use either a gun-tap (forces chips forward) or a spiral flute tap.  With these two styles you don't need to (nor is it advised) to back off the taps while cutting.  Spiral flutes are needed for blind holes.

If the broken tap is not high-speed steel, then you should be able to break it up into small pieces.  If it is high-speed, then you should be able to cut-it out with carbide tools in your dremel.   With stainless, it is nearly impossible to use tap extractors or to force the tap around with a punch.

If the carbide tool, or breaking it up does not work, then you will need to A) scrap the part, B) find someone with an EDM (as suggested above) or C) move the hole to a new location if possible.

Dave.

There's a Yahoo messageboard group called something like "EDMHomeBuilders".  If you can't find a machine shop with an EDM, or if you want to shop around on price, Google for it, join, and post there looking for someone in your part of Utah.

Or if the part isn't valuable or you don't have a lot of time in it, just scrap it and make/buy a new one.

Quoted: There's a Yahoo messageboard group called something like "EDMHomeBuilders".  If you can't find a machine shop with an EDM, or if you want to shop around on price, Google for it, join, and post there looking for someone in your part of Utah. Or if the part isn't valuable or you don't have a lot of time in it, just scrap it and make/buy a new one.

(member) and I own Ben Flemings book.  My unit is about half done, but has been put on hold while I finish building my Seig X3 CNC conversion.