[TR] Taps & Dies

[pethier at comcast.net]

> acekraut11 at aol.com writes: 
> > A local hardware store is going out of business and they have a bunch of 
> > taps and dies that are 75% off.? I thought it might be wise to pick up some of 
> > the more common taps and dies

I wouldn't bother buying them unless they were High Speed Steel.  I have used a lot of hardware-store taps over the years and most of them are rubbish sutible only for cleaning up existing threads in soft metal. 

 I also am a fan of "gun" taps, which are cut at a negative angle on the point and push the waste ahead of the tap, preventing the jamming and breakage for which taps are known.  If you are tapping a blind hole, I suggest you start it wth a gun tap and finish it off with a bottoming tap.

From: Dave1massey at cs.com
> And get some tapping oil.

Just don't use it in cast iron. :-)

--
Phil Ethier  West Side  Saint Paul Minnesota  USA
1962 Triumph TR4 CT2846L, 1992 Saturn SL2, 1993 Suburban,
1994 Miata C package
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