Got a floating tap holder yesterday, it is an ER25 with straight shank. The reason I needed a straight shank is that the Chiron needs special holders so my only options were to buy a proper Chiron floating holder (probably not cheap) or buy a straight shank one and fit it into an endmill holder. It is quite long and having it in the holder makes it even longer but I am in hopes that the CSMIO/IP-A will soon support rigid tapping and I can then dispense with the floating holder, if not then I think I may splash out at some point and buy the proper Chiron one.
Anyway here is a test of it drilling some holes then tapping them.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9mw811reb58As you will hear in the video the bearing on the drill holder is quite noisy when unloaded, it is a new bearing that I got from Mark when I bought the Chiron but its a budget bearing and it is not very smooth at all. I will order up some new SKF bearings this week.
Hood