I've just watched the ultimatehandyman youtube videos on tapping steel.

What i want to achieve is to put a 10mm thread into the front end of an airsoft gun, the videos are both showing putting the thread through a sheet of steel and i want to drill into a larger piece.

Is this something that could be done to an acceptable degree by someone with virtually no experience and probably some relatively cheap tools?
The 10mm hole has to be pretty much perfectly straight and the piece I am drilling into costs over £80 and is rather rare to replace if i screw it up!

My other question is, are there shops etc that will be able to SELL me this modification to the metal part? Someone with more expensive tools and more experience who does this as a job?

I am in Basingstoke so if anyone knows of anything nearby I would be very grateful!

Cheers in advance,
Pepperisit

Sorry, I know nothing about airsoft guns or what you're trying to achieve, why do you need to thread the "front end"?

If it needs to be dead straight and you don't have any machinery to enable you to do that I suspect you'd be better taking it to an engineer/fabricator.

wrinx

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Its so that I can thread a silencer into it. But you don't need any knowledge of airsoft or guns.

I have emailed a local company who do cnc turning and am waiting on a reply. Just thought people on here would know of better ways or companies to ring

I dont know of anyone round Basingstoke.
Drilling and tapping isnt hard by any means, given the right tools, youll need a decent hss drill bit, a hss tap and a tap wrench.

You can get cheap taps for next to nothing, but they are carbon steel, okay for cleaning threads, but not making new ones.
That lot would set you back £10 for mid range.
Find a small local engineering firm, it may cost that, but will be done easily.
Larger companies tend to have minimum charges, which can be anything from £30 upwards.

CNC wont be an advantage for a one off hole. probably easier to do it manually.

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Use a drill press to get a perpendicular feed. Rotate the drill press chuck (with tap in it) by hand to get a 'start' and once the tap starts properly you can remove it and continue by hand.

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I would have though a silencer would be screwed on the outside,

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Silencers are screwed in from the outside but the nature of my guns front means that I am using a thread adapter to screw the silencer into the gun instead of vice versa.

I do not have access to a drill press, I'm using very basic tools/anything I buy.

Overall would it be better/cheaper to do it myself by hand or ask a place thatbdoes machining?

Are you sure the airsoft barrel is made of steel, I thought that they were made of diecast metal which will shatter of you try to cut it.

DWD

Sorry I should have been more clear. I want to tap into the bit of metal the is around the barrel not the barrel itself!

The front portion of my gun looks like this

Non working image removed

That's what I feared, using a small bench drill could have solved your problem. The job doesn't have t be CNC'd, any fabricator or competent home engineer should be able to do it.

Without knowing your skill level there's always a risk it won't be 100% square by hand...the value you placed upon the material means getting it right first time

wrinx

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www.ilmostro.co.uk

Assuming that the barrel shroud? is removable from the gun and cylinder-shaped, the best way to do it would be to:

mount it up and centre it accurately in a lathe chuck, to ensure you're lined up with the central bore;

fit the right size of tapping drill in the tailstock drill chuck and drill in for an inch or so (8.5mm for M10 x 1.5, 8.8 or in a squeeze 9mm for M10 x 1.25, 9mm for M10 x 1);

tap the thread with the tap in the tailstock chuck, remembering to use plenty of the appropriate cutting fluid and backing the tap out a bit every half turn or so, stopping *before* you hit the bottom of the drilling;

Clean all the swarf out before it gets in the gun's action!

As you don't have the lathe, the drill or the tap, either take it to a machine shop (knowing what's involved should help with discussing a price , or perhaps ask on the UK.rec.models.engineering newsgroup - there's likely a reader with the necessary near Basingstoke? In a pinch, I have the necessary and I'm down the M3 near Farnborough (though you'd have to excuse the state of the shed...)

Good luck, Dave H.