Tap & Die

I thought y’all might like to know, American Science and Surplus has
mini tap & die sets for cheap ($12.95). I got one, and it actually
seems to work fine, though, obviously, no bells or whistles. It was
fun to put threads on a piece of 18g wire! I can’t wait to start
screwing things together.

Have fun-- hope they don’t run out right away!

–Noel

I am always skidish when it comes to cheap tap and dies, I have
training as a machinist and make many of my jewelers tools and fix
others. Cheap taps and die don’t always cut cleanly and sometimes
the fit isn’t good.

My tap and dies all come KBC Tools:
http://www.kbctools.com/usa/main.cfm, they do have a Canadian side
of the company. I have used them for many things from micro to very
large.

Never cut a bad thread in many years and tap and dies are matched up
with the right size of drill, as well as an under and oversized
drill. Never broke a tap after I was taught how to cut threads
properly.

I buy all of my taps in the set of threes that include the tapper,
the plug and the bottom taps. The Chinese taps and die sets that
people have given to me, which are in the $10 to $20 range are
really junk.

Jerry