Large taps

I'd like to see the tap wrench that goes with it.

Chris

This being a coarse thread, I would think that the wrench would be operated by 2 people and should be 2 meters long.

I thought it looked fine for 12". The immediate thought I had was why use a tap? The next one was probably it's used for field repair. What a bear to handle. Whatever you're working on would have to be vertical. I can't imagine trying to use that thing horizontally.

Pete Keillor

There is a reason why Fermilab surplused it unused. Whoever bought it, probably did so to have a cute paperweight.

The largest and most expensive custom tools I've seen were at the Portsmouth NH naval shipyard which overhauls nuclear submarines. They had an open house on their 200th anniversary. Naturally I couldn't take any pictures and saw absolutely nothing related to weapons or nuclear power.

They have to remachine large valves, hatches etc made of titanium and K-Monel with equipment light enough to hand-carry through the sub.

Hmm. Things have changed since my grandfather worked there. He was a panel carver, and his job was carving the decorative relief in mahogany panels above the hatches of officer's quarters during WWI.

I still have his tools.

-- Ed Huntress

The most important change is that it's not in NH anymore. Maine and NH fought all the way to the Supreme Court over where the boundary in the Picataqua River lies. Of course taxes -- the ability of Maine to collect income taxes from New Hampshire residents who work at the yard

-- were at the heart of the dispute.

My wife's cousin worked in there in engineering. He told me that a sub undergoing a major refit would have quite few holes cut in the hull for the stuff that couldn't be brought in thru the hatches.