Following my posting of the Joe Pie tap wrench on the Guild forum there was a bit of discussion on the types of tap wrenches in use and one member shared a BA tapping guide that he had bought commercially. Which I thought was a great idea for tapping holes that are too inconvenient to fit in a vice

Having been given the idea, I couldn’t resist having a go at making one this morning.

I even managed to use the reject first attempt at making a drawbar for the Princess which I broke during machining due to me doing the wrong order of operations. I keep one of those square plastic trays that Slaters pack their small items like plunger pick-ups horn guides etc. on my workbench and all my small offcuts of brass and nickel go into it. Once I had machined each end off it was perfect for the guide bush.

I probably over engineered it in so much as I turned the end of the bush down to 5mm for 1.6mm and drilled a 5mm hole in the flat bar which is 1.6mm thick. It was a nice tight fit but I realised that due to the bar being drawn, it wasn’t exactly flat on top and the guide sat at a slight angle. still having the coordinates in the mill from drilling the hole I used a 6mm end mill to mill a recessed flat to accommodate the bush. I checked for squareness with a 1-2-3 block and then soldered the bush in.

The hole in the bush is 3.3mm and will take my 6 -12ba taps freely but with virtually no sideplay. I also have a 14ba tap and I might at some point add another guide bush at the other end of the ‘handle’ with a smaller hole to take that.