Tap & Die Sets

[Dan D.]

Just wondering if anyone had any experience, good or bad, with Pittsburgh (China) tap and die sets from HF.

-Dan-

[John H.]

Re: Tap & Die Sets

Just wondering if anyone had any experience, good or bad, with Pittsburgh (China) tap and die sets from HF.

-Dan-

Dan -

I only buy quality U.S.-made taps - there's nothing more frustrating than trying to remove the remnants of a broken tap from a threaded hole. I drive nuts on the shank end of my taps (old assembly plant repairman trick) so I don't need to use a tap wrench - any wrench or socket will do.


Taps.JPG

[Joe L.]

Re: Tap & Die Sets

Dan -

I only buy quality U.S.-made taps - there's nothing more frustrating than trying to remove the remnants of a broken tap from a threaded hole. I drive nuts on the shank end of my taps (old assembly plant repairman trick) so I don't need to use a tap wrench - any wrench or socket will do.


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John and Dan-----


I agree. While a lot of Harbor Freight stuff is fine for hobbyists, I don't include their tap and dies among them. While they might be functionally OK, I've looked them over carefully and I just don't feel quite right using them. Like John says, having one break off is just too much hassle to take a chance on. Plus, if one is cutting threads into a valuable part, one wants the threads to be RIGHT, not almost right.

Now for the bad news: finding a US-manufactured tap or die is not as easy as it used to be. I've noticed that most Vermont American taps are no longer US-manufactured------YUP, China! I'll bet some of the others that used to be American-manufactured aren't anymore, either.

By the way, if one is CLEANING threads rather than CUTTING threads, you shouldn't be using a tap or die designed for CUTTING threads. Craftsman has an excellent set of thread CLEANING taps and dies (but, as far as I know, they don't sell individual CLEANING taps and dies).

[Donald H.]

Re: Tap & Die Sets

I bought a set of the Harbor Freight tap & die. They work fine for what I need. I have used them after drilling out rusted/broken bolts in my 1960. Also created my own nut plates out of sheet steel for some areas. But they don't stand up to heavy use. I have had to replace one tap that I wore out trying to retap a broken stud on an exhaust manifold. I had to buy a single tap, I think for either Sears or Home Depot.

HF looks like they have three grades, Carbon Steel (the cheapest), Alloy Steel, and Titanium Nitride coated Alloy Steel (most expensive). I'm wondering if the expensive ones will last longer?

Since I am a hobbyist I didn't want to spend a lot of money to buy something that I would only use occassionally.

[Edward B.]

Re: Tap & Die Sets

I've had a set of Pittsburgh SAE taps and dies from Harbor Freight for over 25 years. They have always worked perfectly and I haven't broken a one. Most of my work is in metrics where I use Craftsman taps and dies that are much older than the Pittsburgh. The Craftsman tools definitely have a different feel and finish about them, but that is not to say that the older Pittsburgh has not been more than adequate for my usage. I can not vouch for the quality of today's product as I have no experience in that area.

[Mike E.]

Re: Tap & Die Sets

Dan -

I only buy quality U.S.-made taps - there's nothing more frustrating than trying to remove the remnants of a broken tap from a threaded hole. I drive nuts on the shank end of my taps (old assembly plant repairman trick) so I don't need to use a tap wrench - any wrench or socket will do.


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John,
Very clever! Do you heat the nut before you drive them on?


Mike

[Dan D.]

Re: Tap & Die Sets

Thanks for the responses. This was a loaded question (sorry about that). I bought an HF set a couple of years ago and they are absolutely useless. They all act like they are real dull or maybe undersized. Even for just cleaning existing threads they thread on with stiff resistance and you cannot tell if they are cutting or not. I have done quite a bit of taping and cleaning threads in my life so I know how to use them and not break them. But it is all but impossible to use these things.

What prompted me to post this now is because I was working on my generator yesterday and I needed to clean up the #12-24 field and armature studs and nuts. I have some individual old school taps and dies that I use instead of the HF ones but I do not have 12-24, so I had to use the HF set. And for this particular size they worked fine, which surprised me. So I thought I would post this.

John, thanks for the tip of using a nut on the shank. I never thought of that and I will try it. I have never liked tap wrenches anyhow. And Joe, I don't have any thread chasing taps and dies so I use regular cutting taps and dies. I know it is not the best thing to do, but I get away with it. I will look into the Sears set you talk about as most of my work now days is in rebuilding my car, and cleaning up existing hardware is mostly what I do. -Dan-

[Gary C.]

Re: Tap & Die Sets

Dan,

MSC sells quality USA made taps and dies http://www1.mscdirect.com/eCommerce/...odyLink-_-Taps

So does Snap On.

Gary
....

[Joe L.]

Re: Tap & Die Sets

Thanks for the responses. This was a loaded question (sorry about that). I bought an HF set a couple of years ago and they are absolutely useless. They all act like they are real dull or maybe undersized. Even for just cleaning existing threads they thread on with stiff resistance and you cannot tell if they are cutting or not. I have done quite a bit of taping and cleaning threads in my life so I know how to use them and not break them. But it is all but impossible to use these things.

What prompted me to post this now is because I was working on my generator yesterday and I needed to clean up the #12-24 field and armature studs and nuts. I have some individual old school taps and dies that I use instead of the HF ones but I do not have 12-24, so I had to use the HF set. And for this particular size they worked fine, which surprised me. So I thought I would post this.

John, thanks for the tip of using a nut on the shank. I never thought of that and I will try it. I have never liked tap wrenches anyhow. And Joe, I don't have any thread chasing taps and dies so I use regular cutting taps and dies. I know it is not the best thing to do, but I get away with it. I will look into the Sears set you talk about as most of my work now days is in rebuilding my car, and cleaning up existing hardware is mostly what I do. -Dan-

Dan------


Since I purchased the Craftsman thread cleaning/restoring set I find that I very rarely use a thread cutting tap or die anymore. I just don't have a lot of occasion to cut threads.

[Bill H.]

Re: Tap & Die Sets

Dan------


Since I purchased the Craftsman thread cleaning/restoring set I find that I very rarely use a thread cutting tap or die anymore. I just don't have a lot of occasion to cut threads.

+ 1, Joe

I've had the Craftsman set for 15 years and like Joe, seldom reach for a standard tap.

What the thread restorer will is is straighten out some slightly mangled threads where a tap will cut into the "bent" threads and make things worse.

Plus, with this set you can clean threads - every threaded nut/hole on my 67 restoration will have the threads chased with these.

[John H.]

Re: Tap & Die Sets

John,
Very clever! Do you heat the nut before you drive them on?


Mike

Mike -

Nope, just drive them on the shank. In the plant, we always tried to find a flanged nut that would fit the shank, like the second one from the left in the photo above, to stabilize the tap in the socket; on the line, we used them in an air impact gun - zip in, zip out, done.

I also use a set of thread chasers, which clean up the threads but DON'T cut metal, for cleaning up threaded holes; if threads are damaged, the last thing you want to do is to run a tap through them and cut away more metal.


ThreadChasers.JPG

[Dick W.]

Re: Tap & Die Sets

I have Hansen, Vermont American, and Snap On, all quality taps with no problems. As John said, you don't want to waste a good part of a day trying to get a broken tap out. And, no Lucille, a drill bit will not work on a tap. It is harder than the bit. It is very expensive when you end up having to take it to someone with an EDM to remove it. Don't ask how I know

[Donald H.]

Re: Tap & Die Sets

Mike -

Nope, just drive them on the shank. In the plant, we always tried to find a flanged nut that would fit the shank, like the second one from the left in the photo above, to stabilize the tap in the socket; on the line, we used them in an air impact gun - zip in, zip out, done.

I also use a set of thread chasers, which clean up the threads but DON'T cut metal, for cleaning up threaded holes; if threads are damaged, the last thing you want to do is to run a tap through them and cut away more metal.


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John, what brand is that set you have pictured. Looks like a nice set. I bought a cheap set of the nut chases, but would like a better set.

Thanks,

[John H.]

Re: Tap & Die Sets

John, what brand is that set you have pictured. Looks like a nice set. I bought a cheap set of the nut chases, but would like a better set.

Thanks,

Don -

I don't recall - I've had them for over 20 years.

[Bill H.]

Re: Tap & Die Sets

John, what brand is that set you have pictured. Looks like a nice set. I bought a cheap set of the nut chases, but would like a better set.

Thanks,

I have this one (Craftsman). It's 15 years old and gets used a lot. Still works as good as new. $57
It's made by Kastar, but when I bought mine it was Craftsman (Kastar probably made it origionally anyway).

There's at least 4 different kits on sears.com - search "thread restore".