Grizzly Industrial G8748 - Hand Tapping Machine

This is a very good tool for the money. The base is cast iron that is ground on both top and bottom. There is a clearance hole in the base for the tap to pass through the work piece. It comes with adapters that one puts their taps into and stores them right on the machine. (That's the row of stuff in the picture that's behind the machine but unlike the picture it gets attached to the back of the tool. The adapters then snap into and out of the bottom of the spindle. Very handy. The lever sticking out the back is a counterweight that balances the weight of the spindle so the only downward force on the tap is the force the operator uses. There is a grease fitting for greasing the spindle bearing. The jaws on the base are a little skimpy but I can't see one having much need for them anyway. I haven't actually used it yet so I will update when I have more information. The only design improvement I can think of is to have two tap adapters for some tap sizes so one could have adapters for both course and fine threads without having to have to change an adapter from one tap to another. Update: I have owned this tool for almost twy years now. I am still pleased with it. One objection I have discovered is that the tap adapters are somewhat difficult to insert and remove but it is a minor annoyance. I would recommend this tool to anyone looking for a hand tapping machine.

if you have every tried to tap a bolt hole straight, you will immediately appreciate this device! 'nuff said!

There are no words than can adequately describe how poor the build quality of this tapping machine is. If you have some skills and patience, you can make it work. I see that it is no longer available on Amazon but there is another one that looks just like it. I would approach it with caution. The idea is good, the quality is worse than bad. This is my first (and last) temptation to buy a Grizzly product. It had a spring-loaded ball that was supposed to hold the tap holders in the arbor. This simply did not work and I gave up trying to make it work. I removed the ball and drilled and tapped the arbor for a retainer wing bolt. This works, because the wing bolt goes into the indention on the holder flat where the ball was supposed to go. It is provided with nine tap holders for taps of various sizes. The holders have a flat sided shank that is supposed to slide up into the arbor. The flats provide the driving surface for tapping. Not one of the nine holders would slide up into the arbor. They were not machined carefully enough, had rough edges, etc. I worked on each one with a die grinder until I could make them fit and work reasonably well. The taps are held into the holders with an Allen setscrew. How well do you think a little setscrew holds against a hardened tap shank. It is not good. The taps fall out about half the time. I don’t have a solution for this issue. I just curse and put it back in and bend my Allen wrench trying to get it tight. There is a hole drilled in the base to allow the tap to pass through as the tap clears your workpiece. This hole does not line up with the axis of the arbor. You can break a tap if you are not careful. I was able to fix all but the last problem. It would require drilling out the mounting holes and moving the head of the tapper on the base. I have not done this yet. The counterbalance arm is clumsy at best. I have yet to get mine adjusted so that it does what it is supposed to do. I would award one star except that it actually does work when the taps are not falling out of the holders.

If this is produced for Grizzly they must have lowered their standards. Yes it will do what it's made for but the quality is lacking. I should have returned it but I needed it for a job I was doing. Some of the parts were missing for assembly and putting a tap holder in the spindle is hard not to mention getting it out.

The tap collet was apparently designed by someone that doesn't use tools to any extent. Sure, as others have said you can notch the tap to give the soft set screw something to hold on to but with the wobble in the supplied collets it leaves much to be desired. There is no standard size for taps and that's where a good adjustable tap holder comes in handy. When I get some time I'm going to machine a shorter spindle to accept the common .747" tap socket cylinders using a split clamp and retain the height range the hand tapper has now. If you needed more height range you could machine a block to fit under the post I guess. Other than that it's faster than setting up the mill or lathe for tapping and for the China money I can't complain much.

Absolute junk! The collets do not hold the taps correctly, and after several uses the set screws strip out. I needed a simple tapping machine to fill occasional tapping needs, so I didn't need a high end "production" level tapping machine; so with that in mind, I should have just taken my money, put it in a big pile, and lit it on fire because purchasing this POS is basically the same thing.

Good quality tool. works as intended it would. I was suprised that it was as good as it is for the price

I recently purchased the tapping machine. I must comment the machine is excellent on small parts. I would recommend this product to my friends. There is control and a since of feeling with this product. Thomas/Tucson Az.