Taps and dies

[jddevel]

What are the recommendations when it comes to accumalating taps and dies for are cars certainly for the important and most needed sizes . With new sets basically being all metric and even then manufactured in China with the resulting in my opinion poor quality.

[Tom Lange, MGT Repair]

For the engine I find that M6x1, 8x1 and 10x1.5 cover just about everything, and for the rest of the car I use 1/4, 5/16 and 3/8BSF. Not all taps and dies are equal; I buy a good brand from a commercial supply house or MG specialist, and am usually happy.

There are different types of taps, though: the most common are taper taps, bottoming taps and clean-out taps, each with a different purpose. Don't use a taper or bottoming tap to remove junk from threaded holes, for instance; a clean-out tap will cause less wear to the threads. I sand-blast and dull a used tap to make a clean-out tap when I can't find the correct size clean-out tap.

Tom Lange
MGT Repair

[jddevel]

Thanks Tom

[Butch T]

As Tom says taps and dies come in many configurations and classes. I like to use machine taps rather than hand taps as they are designed to not have to do a half a turn then turn the tap backward to break the chip. And as I do several blind holes so I use spiral flute taps which causes the chip to flow up the tap and out of the hole rather than being forced forward in the hole and packing down at the bottom of the hole. Also taps and dies have classes 1, 2, and 3 the higher the number the tighter the fit between the male and female threads.

Butch

[JohnW]

As Tom says taps and dies come in many configurations and classes. I like to use machine taps rather than hand taps as they are designed to not have to do a half a turn then turn the tap backward to break the chip. And as I do several blind holes so I use spiral flute taps which causes the chip to flow up the tap and out of the hole rather than being forced forward in the hole and packing down at the bottom of the hole. Also taps and dies have classes 1, 2, and 3 the higher the number the tighter the fit between the male and female threads.

Butch

Just make sure whatever taps you buy have hss (high speed steel) written on them somewhere, if not they will be carbon steel and fine for cutting threads in cheese but not metal.