Whats this tapping head?

What is this? Some sort of tapping head for sure. Both taps revolve at the same speed and direction when its rotated, and the arm sticking out must be to stop rotation of the head. But why the strange flange drive? How would it be driven into and out of the work? There is no longitudinal movement anywhere so the feed must be at the same rate as the thread advances. Manufacturer is 'Bush Newark', Coventry. It seems very nicely made. Not sure I can think of a use for it!

Thanks

Simon

It’s a, I assume geared, tapping head. Made as a special to fit on a flanged quill drilling machine probably. The drive input which I can’t see may be a tenon. Used to design these for years in my working life. Don’t know Bush, ,Albert some one near Newark may remember the name. As a total special not much use unless you can mount it and use a single drive spindle to tap with.

Hi Simon, probably as HowardT says and most likely a mass production tool where two identical threaded holes were needed at that spacing. It may have even been for a dedicated machine and it may be only one of several.

Regards Nick.

Edited By Nicholas Farr on 28/07/2020 08:45:29

Also a possibility ... that it was meant to hold two different taps (e.g. a 1st tap and a finishing tap) and the process line was that each equally spaced hole had two tapping functions performed in sequence.