tap & die question

SRF · 2003-10-27T02:46:40+00:00

Newbie here again.Getting ready to get myself a decent tap & die set. Looking in the MSCcatalog I think I'm going to stay away from the Import sets, but the 39piece Hanson set is $108 in carbon steel and $497 in HSS !!! I plan to dosome work with better quality steels (like some hobby gunsmithing) so is theHSS necessary or will the carbon steel work (if the carbon steel taps needto be sharpened after three holes that isn't "working" in my book). Or isthe Import set any good?Thanks.Steve.

Oct 27, 2003 45 Replies

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DoN. Nichols 22 years ago

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.

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DoN. Nichols 22 years ago

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

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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.

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Gunner 22 years ago

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.

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Eastburn 22 years ago

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

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herb 22 years ago

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.

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