Heres some thing an old guy showed me years ago, saves no end of time if you tapping out hard to get at holes, The nuts are just hammered on the taps.



Apologies for crap photo.



And you can even cheat and use the air impact gun (only recomended for cleaning damaged threads out though)

What's wrong with finding the right size open ended spanner to fit on the square of the shank? I used this technique today on a 1/4" UNF tap I had - used a 6BA spanner.

Nice Idea, but a bit 'animal'....

Mark

Because my way you can use 7 feet of extension bars and a ratchet or a dumpy ratchet spanner, depending on what the access is like of course.

I have found that it allows me to recover threads quickly and often "in situ" which helps.




Me a never

This is a usefull technique and I've used it several times myself, but hammering a tap is never a good idea. Far better to use a vice and squeeze the nut on gently. I've got a couple of nuts with square holes filed in them for tapping awkward things....
Cheers,

Chaz

Good tip DirtyDiesel,
I use a few like this myself at work (although officially outlawed !! ) but not with an airgun as getting the broken tap out is too much trouble I'll use the M6 with a makita battery gun for cross-threaded bosses but the others (8, 10, 12, and M14) I do with a rachet and socket.
You can also buy a ratchet tap spanner, which is like a ratchet spanner but with different sized square holes to suit tap shanks. It's very useful in tight spaces.
As Chaz says, putting the nut on in the vice is much better and don't forget to throw a rag over the tap in case it does shatter.
I hope this doesn't sound grandmother/sucking eggs ...

Mo

You wouldn't catch me hammering my "good" taps,


But as these ones are goliath "chocolate" taps they aren't worth the walk to the vice