Knowledge & Community You are here

Great question. DMLS is precise enough that if you build the hole to the standard drill size, it can be directly tapped during post-processing. In this case, M10 threads would require an 8.5 mm hole. If this is a blind hole, please make sure that you have extra room for the tap to engage into the threads since the taps have a taper at the tip. I like to add 3-4 pitches of additional clearance at the bottom of my blind hole if possible to make sure threads are cut cleanly to my desired thread depth.

[Jan Rossi]

Hey everyone,

I’m working on a DMLS project and need to tap M10 threads into the part. Can anyone recommend the best/most cost-efficient design strategies for this? Here are my considerations:

• Creating an 8.5 mm diameter vertical hole and relying on the precision of DMLS.
• Creating a smaller hole (e.g., 6 mm), letting it be printed, and then drilling it out to 8.5 mm for more precision.
• Not designing a hole at all and having it CNC drilled to 8.5 mm after the part is ready.

Any experiences or advice would be greatly appreciated!

0

[Greg Paulsen]

Great question. DMLS is precise enough that if you build the hole to the standard drill size, it can be directly tapped during post-processing. In this case, M10 threads would require an 8.5 mm hole. If this is a blind hole, please make sure that you have extra room for the tap to engage into the threads since the taps have a taper at the tip. I like to add 3-4 pitches of additional clearance at the bottom of my blind hole if possible to make sure threads are cut cleanly to my desired thread depth.

0

[Jan Rossi]

Many thanks!

0