Taps and Dies

JWinAZ

JWinAZ

Well-Known Member
I have had mixed results with hardware store taps and dies. It seems that high quality taps are fairly readily available, at a premium, but not prohibitively so. I have had good luck with Reiff & Nestor taps for sight and scope mounting. Recently I have started to get Morse tap sets (taper, plug, and bottoming) in the UNC and UNF sizes. They work well. Dies are a different matter. Industrial quality dies are outrageously expensive. A survey of the MSC products shows prices for a 1/4-20 die up to $85 each! Where can one find good quality dies at a reasonable price?
 
Irwin and Vermont American suck. Snap-on sucks twice as bad, glass-hard through and through.

Most of my good ones are Morse.

You might message Joe Pie on utoob and ask him.

If I just need a one-off and the material isn't something challenging like SS or Ti I buy cheap HSS from whatever scumbags have them listed at Mao's Dollarama.
 
My most used are Morse! Those are the ones I use for flintlock rifle building!
My recent late friend who was a machinist
Gave me a bunch of once used taps from special jobs he had done !
They are really nice but weird sizes
 
Luckily, I have my father's Greenfields that work for most of my projects. Available from fleabay used if you are willing to wait.
 
I counted earlier, I have eight sets of taps and dies, mostly imperial in the usual 6-40 to 1/2-13 UN and UNF with the 1/8" pipe tap. My Snap on master set has a 1/8" British pipe tap, God forbid it ever comes to needing that one. I "inherited" a few from in-laws and step-in-laws on my wife's side, all Craftsman sets from the 60s and 70s, mostly decent but nothing special. My machinist's taps are ones I've bought or found here and there or been given (thanks, @smokeywolf ) and are, as I said, mostly Morse from MSC. $49.99 shipping no matter what, the taps are free.

I like split HSS dies so the depth of cut can be adjusted.
 
I have my Dad's 50 pc set, goes up to 5/8 (or 3/4?), it's from the 1970s, imported from Japan, he probably got the set from Sears? Anyway, it's rare when I need them, but they always do the job of a DIY guy chasing/repairing threads. I recently did that with a CH press handle, it had 1/2 fine threads that were banged up...the old die cleaned 'em right up.
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Back when I was working a full time job as a panel builder, I was in charge of requesting/ordering supplies. We'd tap a lot of holes in 12 and 10 ga mild steel, 4-40, 6-32, 8-32, 10-24, 1/4-20. and 3/8-16. I would specify USA made HSS, I have no idea who made them? ordered from McMaster-carr. they always worked until they were abused.
 
We have a retirement community just north of us in Georgetown. They have a community garage sale 2 times a year. These are all old folks with old stuff. They were buying stuff before the made in china garbage was filling the shelves. I make it a point to attend both sales and always find good Made in the USA tools. I even met a guy that had over 100 lbs of linotype! Estate sales are good too.

Bruce
 
I have my Grandfather's old tools.

Remember the old stamped tin with plastic drawers shelf/ cabinet that hangs on the shop wall.....that one !

Still working.
 
RicinYakima said:
Luckily, I have my father's Greenfields that work for most of my projects. Available from fleabay used if you are willing to wait.
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Unless your high production or just hard on your tools. These have worked perfectly fine for me for a long while. My local supply carries them as does eBay (as mentioned) and The jungle store too IINM.

I JUST LAST WEEK, misplaced my bottoming 1/4-28 so I ordered two sets on the 1/4's ta have.

CW
 
This set was a birthday gift from my father in the mid-'70s. After which I became the fix-it kid, which I enjoyed. They have been well used and abused to some extent, just look at the 5/16 tap. Ranch use was particularly rough. The 3/8 die was lost at some point, probably in the dirt under a windmill. Hex die replacement was all I could get at the time. I still use it for repair work, and the die stock is the best. And, this set reminds me of nice times when I open the drawer.

The mystery to me is the Columbia company. I know they made twist drills also. I can't find any information about them, which drives me a little crazy. Maybe a subsidiary brand for one of the well known companies?

Ian said:
Joe Pie
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When I single point I use his reverse rotation method if possible. A good reason to have a non-threaded chuck attachment.

Columbia.jpg
 
Can’t remember the last time I used a conventional round or hex die, don’t do much repair work. Have an expanding die head for cutting external threads under power in a lathe for production.

About all we use for production tapping anymore is cobalt or solid carbide spiral flute taps. You don’t get those at Home Depot or Ace hardware. I usually buy them a half dozen at a time when I get low.
 
I don't remember the brand of the taps we used at the forging factory. We used them on the different nuts we made. I remember they came from Germany so we ordered a large amount when e ordered them. The operators would change them out every couple of days on the 2 piece semi truck wheel nuts. They would get thousands of holes tapped on each tap before they were replaced.

I know the machine that did it had a lot of maintenance to keep it going. We had two types. One was a verticle that operated off cams and cam follower bearings. The other that was the main ones were a mechanical swing arm and collet type. Can't remember the actual name anymore. It would be a pre cnc press.

Whenever I needed taps I got them from the tool room guys. They had their own crib that they stocked everything they needed. And they always told me that taps were a one time use for them. So I had them put them in a box for me after they used them.
 
I probably handled, stocked, sold, and installed a bunch of your work, Tomme. The last few years at the truck shop about all we could get were Euclid wheel nuts and studs, suspension parts, spindle nuts and locks, etc. and a lot of that was made in you know where.
 
@Ian before I left there we had just got a patent on a Axilok. That thing had a lot of operations on it. The wheel nuts were their bread and butter. Right when I was leaving there was a company in Brazil that had copied the lug nuts exactly and was selling them for $0.50/ea They were trying to secure sanctions against them but you know how that worked out.

It is a entertaining story how those nuts came to be. The founder lost his son in an accident in a semi. The truck had aluminum wheels and the old acorn wheel nuts. The nuts wallowed out the holes and the rim ripped off. He was an engineer and made it his mission to replace the regular wheel nuts with the two piece he came up with.
 
I once played heavily in the 310 tool side of reloading. Says to myself, self, it would be nice to have a set of taps and died to clean up 310 dies, not realizing I was opening Pandora’s box.
First off, Lyman/ Ideal used about 20 different thread sizes on these. Finally got my machinist buddy to measure the all.
Then I started looking for sources. Talk about unicorn horns and frog hair and hen’s teeth. I had a $500 list and hadn’t started good. So, I closed Pandora’s box and moved on.
Thank God for mil spec and aircraft standards in my old Jon of Aviation Logistics./beagle
 
I have a real mish-mash collection of taps and dies - mostly taps.

All of the ones I use for gun stuff came from my dad, who stayed stocked up when he worked as a tool & die maker. Each is accompanied with a quality twist drill of the appropriate size, some carbide drills to break case-hardening and notes as to where and when to use which size. I also have a considerable assortment of larger taps of high quality he set me up with.

For everyday use, I have quite a few "hardware store" drills/taps, which do a fine job for general connecting/fastening chores.

There are SO many things I've been able to make, improve or repair using taps and dies that I can't count. This is a set of tools, and the skill to use them to reasonably decent effect, no one should be without. Like inner-tube patches and tire plugs, duct tape, JB Weld, polyurethane glue, at least SOME sort of welder, pipe and tubing cutters, fence pliers...
 
And baling wire. Re-bar tie wire is the substitute since the use of baling twine started. I don't do fence work anymore but I still find uses for my fence pliers.
 
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