Modding Tapping in 2mm aluminium

Guys, just need a tap and die for a scratch build.

Having never used one before, would I be ok using it to tap 2mm aluminium, and would this one do the job?

Ta

 

It's very basic, but it'll do the job. 2mm aluminum is perfectly fine for tapping aswell. I used 1.5mm aluminum before and there was no problem tapping it either.

Just make sure that you don't buy pure aluminum as it's very soft. 6061 or 6082 is what you're looking for.

 

and a can of wd40

 

And remember, go slow

 

Firstly try it out on a couple of test piece to make sure you get the hang of it.

'half turn forwards quarter turn back' to quote my engineering tutor - helps clear any swarf out of the tap so you will get a cleaner thread at the end

 

or go and get some flush nuts and press it into the holes...

 

What size fastener did you want to tap it for? For larger/coarser threads, threaded inserts might give you better results. 2mm is kind of thin.

 

I've done a bit of tapping in 2mm aluminium recently, and I experienced the opposite to what Stuey suggested - my smaller threads came out worse! Granted, I only tried M3, M4 and M5.

The M3 worked, but after putting a bolt in and out several times, the threads wore away - they were too small to be able to stand the bolt being tightened. M4 worked perfectly, although eventually it might do the same as M3 threads. M5 was almost the largest thread I would want to try - maybe M6 or M7 would be the limit. Eventually you wouldn't have enough threads in the aluminium to hold the bolt - the M5 bolts were a little wobbly as-is.