Now and then, I find that I could use a tap and die set.
I usually go without and figure something else out, but decided perhaps I should go with one.
The local hardware store has Irwin brand. Small kit, both metric and English are available. However, not sure if it's worth the $60 or so.
Need a recommendation for a set. Like to keep it under $100 if possible.
MJ
I'd suggest buying a small combination set from a reputable seller like McMaster-Carr.
------------------------------------- I find that I use taps far more often than dies.
As a result, have bought individual taps as well as both tap and clearance drills as package, then taken a piece of hardwood and drilled it as a storage block.
Have built a set of taps from 4-40 thru 1/2-13 over the years and never had to go looking for a tap drill when it was time to add a tapped hole.
Dies OTOH, the few that I have, are kept in a box along with the handle.
I would be suspicious of tap and die sets bought at the retail level.
YMMV
Lew
I have used dies to chase threads - both on a bolt/rod that was squished, but also off the lathe - once almost all of the cutting is done. A final pass with a sharp die.
Some swear by iron cutters others swear with HHS or M42. If a tap shatters it is easier to get cast iron out, I suppose.
I'd like to hear the sides on Cast vs. HHS.
Mart> wrote:
No point in spending money on any taps or dies that aren't HSS.
We're metric in the UK, for new work anyway, and maybe also a couple of others like 26tpi brass thread and 40tpi model engineering. Anyway, we use far fewer thread standards than in the USA. As I mostly tap in no more than 3 threads, I can afford to have top-quality tap sets in those sizes and just use a cheap set for backup.
Ha! #4-40 tpi and #6-32 tpi are still NATO standards, and I'm dubious that pipe systems in UK have gone metric any more than they have in the US. There's lots of OLD designs (1/4-20 Whitworth threads for camera sockets comes to mind) that haven't been dropped, too. All 3.5" hard disk drives are attached with #6-32 here in the USA, though 2.5" drives and DVD drives have gone metric.
You can ignore the relics, but they haven't gone away.
I /think/ threaded plumbing fittings, such as taps (fawcets) and valves are still BSP though the pipe sizes and soldered fittings are metric.
Conduit is certainly metric.
There used to be a "continental" tripod thread that one came across in "older" times and adaptors were available to allow such cameras to be attached to tripods with 1/4" whit. 1/4 Whit was certainly the most common and I guess the Japanese adopted it for their cameras to have as large a potential market as possible. It's still a standard because it has become a worldwide standard and there is no good reason to change. A good tripod will last many years, probably longer than most of the cameras being produced today, so if a camera manufacturer were to suddenly change to, let's say, a metric thread, they would have to ship with an adapter to fit older tripods, which would be silly. (I wish Microsoft would follow that example)
I cannot speak for 2.5" drives but I suspect that because CDs were invented in Europe they have always shipped with metric threads. It would be natural for DVD drives to follow that .
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