Thread: Recommended brand for tap & die set

for what your doing the stuff from trade tools will do the job

What ever you do don't buy cheap. They will break & them your in more trouble than a cat in a dog house. Spend your money [U]once[U] on a decent set. P & N are a good medium priced set.

Brain Hjelm on here may have some thing or have better recommendations

Gary

Originally Posted by Dave_S

I have an Isuzu Land Rover County and a couple of old Volvos. I need a tap and die set that's fairly comprehensive and covers a range of metric and imperial threads. I don't want to do a lot of thread cutting as such, but I often find threads that have been damaged or worn or just need cleaning up.

Any recommendations?

My business, Brian's Retirement Sale, sells taps and dies as part of a range of machine shop supplies, restorer's and repairer's tools, hobby and model engineer's supplies. My speciality is rare, obsolete, hard to find, and "no longer available" taps and dies.

My advice to any home repairer or hobbyist is to buy only what you need. A comprehensive set from No. 10 to 3/4" or 2.5mm to 22mm will contain many items you will never use. Most passenger vehicles and motor cycles can be covered with taps and dies from No.10 to 1/2"/ 4mm to 14mm. If your budget stretches to it, buy only high speed steel tools. They are more accurate and last longer than carbon steel tools. You will find that the Oz made brands, Suttons, Osborne, very expensive. P&N have been owned by Suttons for over 10 years and are now the hardware and tool shop brand whilst Suttons is the industrial brand.

Thanks guys. I might wander down to the local bolt shop next weekend and see if I can get the right one.

Originally Posted by Brian Hjelm

If your budget stretches to it, buy only high speed steel tools. They are more accurate and last longer than carbon steel tools.

+1 on this....I recently broke a near new carbon steel M16 tap in half, it slipped out of the tap holder, fell onto a concrete floor and snapped in two!


Work was buying some cheap carbon steel ones from a local supplier, we gave up on them after having too many breakages....they seem very brittle.

G'day Dave.
Agreed on the cheapies. Avoid them unless your good at removing broken taps. As Brian has suggested, buy an industry recognised brand such as P&N, Sutton. BTW I like the sound of your Volvo's!. Are you in a club?
Regards
Robbo

Originally Posted by robbotd5

G'day Dave.
Agreed on the cheapies. Avoid them unless your good at removing broken taps. As Brian has suggested, buy an industry recognised brand such as P&N, Sutton. BTW I like the sound of your Volvo's!. Are you in a club?
Regards
Robbo

I'm in a club that caters for Volvo 120s and 1800s, so basically all of the Amazon series and the P1800s (like the one in "The Saint"). My wagon is pretty rare, with probably only a dozen or so left on the road at the moment. There are lots more overseas though and parts are relatively easy to come by.

I'm currently looking at options for painting the car. A friend had a quote of over $20,000 to paint his wagon, and that was on the basis that he stripped it to a shell and reassembled it afterwards. I think I'd better learn to paint!

Originally Posted by Dave_S

I'm in a club that caters for Volvo 120s and 1800s, so basically all of the Amazon series and the P1800s (like the one in "The Saint"). My wagon is pretty rare, with probably only a dozen or so left on the road at the moment. There are lots more overseas though and parts are relatively easy to come by.

I'm currently looking at options for painting the car. A friend had a quote of over $20,000 to paint his wagon, and that was on the basis that he stripped it to a shell and reassembled it afterwards. I think I'd better learn to paint!

Dave
That club would be the 1800/120 club Australia. Of which I'm a member. I have a 1969 1800S.
Regards
Robbo