Who makes good taps?

Carbon steel taps are for desperation and soft materials only... ie: this hole need tapping -today- and all I can get is :-(

Spiral point, gun taps, and spiral taps all make your experience better!

As silly as it sounds, for 1/8" or so wall thickness in Aluminum, those hex shank combined drill, tap, countersink tools work really well and FAST! Greenlee and Klein offer good ones.

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I bought mostly USA made taps from Ebay NOS. I tried to make sure I have a tapered hand tap, plug hand tap, spiral point, spiral flute on hand. Sometimes a bottoming tap is necessary so if I found a really good deal I'd buy one. I keep a list on my phone of all my taps so if I find a cheap tap at the flea market I can check to see if it's one I need, then decide if I'll buy it anyway.
 
Winegrower said:
I like YG1 brand taps and end mills. All Industrial seems to generally be most competitive and free shipping over $75.
Frankly I have not been able to justify purchasing anything from MSC, especially since they wrecked Enco.
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I'll second that about MSC. Wanted to order something from them, $3 from others for shipping, they wanted 12.99
if you don't do a big order they are horrible on shipping. Enco used to ship for very reasonable $$$ even though it was owned by MSC at the time.
I miss Enco.
I like the Guhring, Morse, Hertel, GTD, my friend swears by Hertel ..
 
I just completed a set of spiral flute taps like this

YG-1 F4 Series Vanadium Alloy HSS Spiral Flute Tap, Steam Oxide, Round Shank with Square End, Bottoming Chamfer, 5/16"-18 Thread Size, H5 Tolerance - F4445: Amazon.com: Industrial & Scientific

Shop Amazon for YG-1 F4 Series Vanadium Alloy HSS Spiral Flute Tap, Steam Oxide, Round Shank with Square End, Bottoming Chamfer, 5/16"-18 Thread Size, H5 Tolerance - F4445 and find millions of items, delivered faster than ever.
www.amazon.com
Should have spent the extra long ago and been done with the grief of regular hand taps. These work great and fast, hand or otherwise!
Aaron
 
Larry$ said:
Hertel is MSC's house brand, I've had good luck with it.
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I did not know that. I power tap a lot with a milling machine just holding the tap in a chuck. I bought two Hertel 3/8 X 16 taps nearly 20 years ago. I have probably tapped over 200 holes with one of them and it still gives good results. I'm not sure I have even taken the second one out of its case.
 
projectnut said:
Personally I would stay away from taps made specifically for hand tapping. They are often made of carbon steel which won't last as long, and don't self clear the chips so the tap has to be reversed every 1/2 turn or so to break the chip. A spiral point machine tap would be my choice for through holes. With this style tap the chips are forced forward through the hole. They don't have to be backed up to break the chip and the flutes don't get clogged up.

For blind holes I would use spiral flute taps. They push the chip back up the hole so it doesn't collect at the bottom. They make it far easier to tap to within 1 thread of the bottom of the drilled hole.
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I totally agree about spiral point taps. I love using spiral flute taps when machine tapping into blind holes, but they can be very troublesome in hand tapping situations. The spiral flute taps have a much deeper gullet to extract the chip being cut and as a result are much less forgiving and will quickly snap off if you are tapping by hand and don't maintain precise alignment. And they get even more fragile the smaller the diameter. My rule of thumb is not to use spiral flute taps by hand if the diameter is less than 3/8" and NEVER use them in a handheld drill or with a socket set as the driving mechanism.

You might find the attached helpful.
 

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  • About Tapping.pdf
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Thanks for that great document, David! After decades of using standard hardware-store Irwin taps I discovered spiral flute taps. I mostly tap 1/4-20 down to #6-32 and exclusively with spiral flute, both plug and bottom. I'm probably going to jinx myself now but I haven't broken one yet. I'm pretty careful, always using a tap wrench and usually a spring-loaded tap follower. Awhile back I made some of Joe Pie's little mini handles and that helps to be careful.

Oh, I settled on OSG brand taps.
 
LVLAaron said:
I need some taps... and want good ones. Who makes "good" taps, and where can I buy them?
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At the risk of committing heresy here, I have a set of Craftsman taps that I've seen using for thirty years. A 75 piece set of taps and dies on Amazon will run just over $200. I have no complaints. I probably have fifty others of various suppliers that I've picked up over the years for special projects but that initial set has served me well.
 
Logan Novice said:
At the risk of committing heresy here, I have a set of Craftsman taps that I've seen using for thirty years. A 75 piece set of taps and dies on Amazon will run just over $200. I have no complaints. I probably have fifty others of various suppliers that I've picked up over the years for special projects but that initial set has served me well.
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I've got a full set of import taps/dies I've used a bunch of times to chase threads or determine size/pitch of something.

I asked about some quality taps because I need to tap two holes in my mill bed to mount an auto feed. I just didn't want to risk getting something stuck/broken and minimize risk
 
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