Reducing Labor Costs

ScopeRoller made a whole bunch of product today.  It was elegantly mass production.  My assistant cut aluminum tube on the chop saw, and I ran it through the pilot hole process on the mill almost as fast as he made them.  While was drilling through the pilot holes and tapping them with the Tapmatic, I suddenly saw an opprtunity to speed up the process and reduce labor.

The aluminum sleeves have threaded holes in the same positions on opposite faces of the square tubing.

1. Use a longer drill bit to do both faces at the same time.  This also allows me to only mark pilot holes on two of the four faces, a big time saver.

2. Use a combo drill and tap in the Tapmatic (a wonderful device, by the way).  One less set of drill operations; one less tooling change.

Both on order.

Ideal:

3. A long enough drill and tap combo to do both faces at once.

The combo drill and 1/4"-20 tap works beautifully; I can now go directly from pilot holes to threaded holes in one operation using the Tapmatic (at 450 rpm).  It isn't long enough to do both sides of the tube at the same time, but I do have a drill bit long enough to drill both sides in one operation.  I will try to find a long enough drill/tap combo to do both sides at once.

No luck searching for a longer drill/tap combo.