Tapping Hints

You can cut materials up to about half as hard as the cutting tool.
Keep Tap Drill sharp! A dull drill can work harden the material you are tapping.
Hand taps can go about 2x their diameter in depth without chip problems.
Fast or High Spiral fluted taps can go about 3x times their diameter before chip problems occur.
Almost all tap breakage when reversing out is due to a chip packing problem.
A taper in the threads or oversize threads are caused by feed rate. This is the hardest problem to fix.