tap & die question

I beg your pardon! Maybe not today's tap sets, but I have a set (obtained from an eBay auction), made by TRW, which has all three in all the sizes from 1-64 through 1"-16 (IIRC) -- and good quality HSS taps at that (and dies). (Actually -- there is a place-holder where one uncommon size would go -- 5-40 I think.

These are the ones which push the chips ahead -- though not the spiral-point "gun" taps, which I admit I would prefer for most work.

I keep a 10x Jeweler's loupe and a good high-intensity light handy for those times. :-)

Enjoy, DoN.

Hmm ... we seem to have jumped from dealing with broken off taps to broken off screws here. :-)

Hmm ... this suggests that you don't have an Albrecht style drill chuck on your drill press -- or you keep a keyed one ready to swap in when you need to drill in reverse. :-)

Enjoy, DoN.

I have 3 drill presses, and two (3 actually, but one is for sale) vertical mills. The drill press in question is a South Bend, with a keyed chuck on a #2 morse taper

Gunner

Cum catapultae proscriptae erunt tum soli proscript catapultas habebunt.

Sometimes a blade or a phillips is a bit shinny for a tight fit. Also, most of us don't know how to sharpen (yep the pro's do) screwdrivers and define the blade for a screw slot.

Some of the nicest I've seen lately were from Sears - they are harder steel now and are ribbed on the blade. These help in a jam fit.

The grit in the bottle - helps cut into the driver and screw for a better and firm grip. I've seen some at Sears before.

Leevalley is just fine.

Martin

Assuming most of your tapping is going to be on the small side ( 1/2 " or less ) nobody sharppens these taps. The big consideration is trying to remove fairly inexpensive broken tap from a very small hole in a fairly valuable gun. Some of these small taps require a bit of practice to be used on tough steel even with HSS. With poor quality taps small holes such as mounting a scope base could well be imposible on tough steel.

x-- 100 Proof News -