Cleaning an old grimy tap with a wire brush

Boy, Tom Gardner couldn't stand to see you abuse a wire brush this way!

With a little care and common sence, I don't see why not. That is run the brush away from the cutting edge.

A brass brush would probobaly be the safest if your concerned about the cutting edges.

Are those taps carbon steel or high speed steel ?

Best Regards Tom.

I would never use a wire brush on a tap or die. Any sharp edge will be dulled.

Use a fiber brush. Use a part washer or transmission fluid or the like to clean.

These cut strong iron pipe. If really nasty - parts washer or a container with sink dish washing soap - and a fiber brush.

Mart> I have a few pipe taps for pipes ranging from 2 inch NPT to 5 inch

Yep, this is what I did, thanks.

Carbon steel. See picture.

Nice clean up, looks like there ready for ebay.

Best Regards Tom.

I'd agree. I was taught not to even clean bolts using a powered wire brush.

I can't imagine degrading non-critical bolts with a wire wheel enough to matter. I do make special brass knot-type brushes for Sikorsky rotor bolts.

Exactly! Besides, I would think the corrosion has already damaged the cutting edges to some extent.

Hm...

I am thinking, I should take all these taps to a tool grinding outfit in Addison and have them resharpened, prior to placing on ebay.

Do they chemically sharpen taps as they do files?

-- Life is an escalator: You can move forward or backward; you can not remain still. -- Patricia Russell-McCloud

Are they used to clean up dirty threads before they're unbolted through an expensive and critical casting/machining?

-- Life is an escalator: You can move forward or backward; you can not remain still. -- Patricia Russell-McCloud

I do not have a cutter and I do not have the skill.

I sure hope not

I've never heard of it, but who knows?

Iggy, I've cleaned and sharpened taps by hand for around 40 years. Unless you're using them in volume commercial work, it's probably quicker than using power. That is, unless the taps are really shot.

I use a hand-held bristle brush to clean them, and (usually) paint thinner as a solvent. I sharpen them by clamping them in a vise and running a round slip down the gullets, leaning on the cutting side. My slips are in two grades of aluminum oxide and hard Arkansas stone. I have around twenty of them in different sizes and shapes.

It's quick, if you don't let them get too bad. You'll kill a lot of time if you can see rounding on the cutting edges with your naked eye. That's when I'd send them out, if I did that much work with taps. But if they're too rounded, they're shot. You'll never get a true size out of them again.

Ed, keep in mind that they are tapered pipe taps. They are not straight. "True size" does not make as much sense for a tapered tap, if you think about it.

I will go today to a tool grinding place and I will price sharpening them. I am sure that it will be cheaper than me doing it by hand.

I will then sell them as "resharpened taps, ready to be used".

I will post an update for this.

Aha. I missed that. Yes, you can sharpen them 'till the cows come home.

That's why I treat it all as a hobby. My time is worth nothing. It's the sheer pleasure of sliding that slip in and out, in and out...

Good.

Perhaps not, but uneven metal removal will make some flutes cut deeper than others.

I got an acceptably sharp edge by grinding the (formerly) curved relief between centers on my surface grinder, with a spring finger locating the gullet side of the edge. Grinding either the taper or the gullet doesn't affect the thread diameter on a straight tap since it only moves the tapered cutting surface a short ways into the full-form threads. AFAIK these don't have any back relief.

jsw

LOL. I needed that.