Looking for Quality brand recommendations for machine tap and tap/die sets

[BobWarfield]

I'll come in late and suggest an alternate course.

I used the Craftsman set I had for many years. In fact, I had two sets and replaced the individual taps and dies if they seemed at all worn.

Then one day I bought some "real" taps. The difference in performance was like night and day.

The Craftsman has always taken a fair amount of tap in a turn or two, back off and break the chips. The brand new "real" taps went into the material like it was butter. Chips were blown out the top very easily (unless it was a thread forming tap!). Suddenly tapping was quick and easy and not the chore it had been. This only whet my appetite for more as I explored the world of tapping and soon tried thread forming taps and 3 flute 45 degree spiral taps:



My conclusion was I never wanted to use those Craftsman taps again if I could avoid it--they got relegated strictly for emergencies.

Now do you want to shell out for a big assortment of expensive taps right away? No, probably not. But here is something else you should be thinking about. Depending on your projects, you are the machinist, you can make them however you want. Why not standardize on a few hardware sizes? Start with a small, medium, and large. Put together an assortment of hardware in those three sizes--socket head cap screws, nylok nuts, regular nuts, washers, and so on. Buy yourself some taps to go with your 3 sizes. Now it's a lot less expensive.

You'll still probably want the Craftsman set for emergencies, but try a real tap first chance you get and see if it doesn't spoil you pretty fast.

Best,

BW