Small BA Taps

Does anyone have any suggestions about the best source for small BA taps?

Sods law operated on me last night; I needed to tap about 2 dozen 12 BA holes, did the first 2 as a trial run, put the tap in a pin vice to clean out the thread before trying the screw in it - and promptly dropped it. The aforementioned law required that it landed point down and snapped off the threading bit.

Web searches have give me prices ranging up to nearly forty quid, with most sellers not going that small, and quite a few that do only offering cut thread carbon steel taps.

If I can find a reliable source of quality taps at around the £5-7 mark I think I'll buy a stock - they seem to be well on the way to endangered species status, but they are still pretty well universal in 7mm scale modelling.

David

Reply to
David Littlewood
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10 for =A349
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John
Reply to
John

A quick Altavista search came up with:-

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HTH -

Reply to
Frank Erskine

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Reply to
Lester Caine

I've bought from Tracy Tools in the past. For 12BA taps and dies see:

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taps are £4 each in carbon steel and £12 in HSS. As you want more than one it might be sensible to phone them on 01803326430 to see if they'll give you a reduction.

Alan

Reply to
Alan Dawes

In article , Alan Dawes writes

Thanks all. Had seen all these from Google and rejected them, or was hesitant.

Frank - £10 (from Modelfixings) seems too much to me (though as I said I have seen prices up to £40!)

Lester/Alan - looked at Tracy Tools, they only seem to have taper taps; I'm doing blind holes (and I regard taper taps as the least useful sort generally). Have used Tracy in the past (in fact I think the tap I broke last night was from them 20 years ago!) and always been satisfied with their stuff.

John, Yes these (from tapdie.com) look good, provided you want to buy 10 at £49 rather than £10 each for fewer. Don't mind buying 10 as long as I know they are OK. Never had any dealings with them, anyone used them?

David

Reply to
David Littlewood

Just had another thought, try The Tool Box in Colyton, Devon. They sell second hand tools mainly. It's not a bargain shop but they do sell quality tools. A lot of their customers are model makers and they have some obscure stuff on occasions.

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always pop in when I'm in the area and generally loose an hour as well as some =A3s.

John

Reply to
John

Click on the drop down list!

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will see all the options.

Reply to
Lester Caine

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I just checked and I can't help with the 12BA taps, but I have the following if anyone needs them:

36 x 8 BA (long)

48 x 6 BA (long)

40+ x 6 BA (normal length)

7 x 4 BA (normal length)

16 x 2 BA (normal length)

30+ x 3/16 BSW (normal length)

  • quite a few unidentified ones.

As far as I know they are all HSS and unused though some have very slight rust marking on the shaft. I got them along with a lot of other stuff when a company closed down a few years ago so let me know if they are of use to any of you.

Cheers,

Cliff

Reply to
Cliff Ray

Drat, I missed that! Seems a pretty obscure way of showing it, I was convinced there were only tapers.

Thanks for pointing that out!

David

Reply to
David Littlewood

and you can have the joy of travelling back to Seaton, where, if you are like me, you will have left the car, on the Seaton tramway.

Alan

Reply to
Alan Dawes

Ebay, item 290527074011 Set of 3 12BA HSS taps on a buy it now for =A312.21 Currently 9 sets available.

John

Reply to
John

In article , John writes

John,

Thanks for that. Now only 7 sets left! Have bought from them several times but never thought of looking at them for taps.

Hm, interesting, looking on the Rotagrip website I see the price is 50 quid or so. Hope these ones are good quality.

David

Reply to
David Littlewood

In article , David Littlewood writes

Yikes! Was very tempted to buy these, but noticed just in time that the £4 is for CS taps - HSS are £12 or so.

Eventually found these:

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Ordered a few, and a couple of the eBay sets from Rotagrip John just pointed out.

Many thanks to all who replied.

David

Reply to
David Littlewood

In article , David Littlewood writes

Well, the Shesto ones turned up today, and I tapped a hole with one. Screw (definitely 12BA) wouldn't fit!

Subjected them to a careful scrutiny on a toolmaker's microscope, and I'm 99% sure they are actually 13BA! Definitely 0.25mm pitch rather than the 0.28mm they should be, and about 0.15 - 0.2mm (difficult to be precise with a tap using simple optical methods) less in diameter. I've never seen a 13BA tap, or screw, before.

Needless to say I will be sending them back - unless anyone wants a 13BA plug tap or 5.... May just keep one as a curiosity.

Still waiting for the eBay ones, hope they will be OK.

David

Reply to
David Littlewood

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