Gearwrench tap and die owners that built a die holder for your lathe

[ssdesigner]

I am not interested in milling this part but I thought I could mod a 1-7/16" socket to serve as an insert holder for my gearwrench dies.

Nope. The a*&%@! made their dies slightly bigger than that. Am I going to be forced to pay $60 for their 2 adapters? Or am I missing something obvious? (aside from "just make it", which I don't want to do at the moment)

 

[pontiac428]

I am not interested in milling this part but I thought I could mod a 1-7/16" socket to serve as an insert holder for my gearwrench dies.

Nope. The a*&%@! made their dies slightly bigger than that. Am I going to be forced to pay $60 for their 2 adapters? Or am I missing something obvious? (aside from "just make it", which I don't want to do at the moment)

Did your set not come with the super-nifty GW die holder that fits the splines on their ingenious ratcheting handle? Because I can't say I've done backflips over the quality of their HSS... it's below average at best, which is just decent as far as PRC exports go, but the tap and die handles are really neat.

 

[ssdesigner]

Did your set not come with the super-nifty GW die holder that fits the splines on their ingenious ratcheting handle? Because I can't say I've done backflips over the quality of their HSS... it's below average at best, which is just decent as far as PRC exports go, but the tap and die handles are really neat.

I got the super deluxe mega ultra supreme master set. So yup, came with the fancy handled holders that will never be used on my lathe. The holders are huge. And clunky.

 

[pontiac428]

Ah, I see now. Yes, it does suck that they decided to take common size and add 1/2 mm to it just to prevent people from using any other type of driver.

//edit: 36mm is what you want.

 

[ssdesigner]

Ah, I see now. Yes, it does suck that they decided to take common size and add 1/2 mm to it just to prevent people from using any other type of driver.

//edit: 36mm is what you want.

So a 36mm would also be too small:

 

[pontiac428]

Well, shoot! If 1-7/8" is 35.9375mm, and the die is 36.4mm, then I don't know what to tell ya as far as off-the-shelf solutions go. It kind of makes a 12" Crescent adjustable seem like a viable approach. Either that or set up the rotary table and make an ideal one. When numbers don't fall into convenient divisions, the industry calls them proprietary sizes. The only reason for a proprietary hex is to prevent you from using it creatively.

 

[Jake M]

I see what the die measures. What does the socket measure?

Your die clearly measures 36.39mm
1-7/16 inches works out to 36.51mm

That should go.

Add to that, bolts/nuts are undersized from nominal, sockets and wrenches are oversized from nominal. That really should go. My first step to investigate would be the actual flat dimension inside the socket. See if the socket is a dud. Not common, but I've seen it on USA tool truck tools, so I'm sure any country could accomplish that if they put their mind to it. My second step to investigate would be the corner profile. Nuts and bolts (typically) don't have sharp corners, and there's a lot of "modifications" to a standard hexagon for extra grip reasons, and patent infringement reasons.

I don't know what's available to you locally and conveniently, but me, personally, I'd find an excuse to ride around to a few places that might sell such sockets, and see if I could get it to drop into one. I'd expect that 1-7/16 socket to be at least 1.440 or 1.450, (with additional slop kind of expected from some of the discount brands). That's 36.57mm and upwards... I'd bet there's a 1-7/16 socket "somewhere" that will fit that die quite well.

I've also got no idea what to expect of a Gearwrench die. Never used one. They've made some good stuff. Some of it really good. And they've made some poor stuff. Some of itreally poor. I would, just for giggles, measure across the whole set, see what their tolerances are, just to be 100 percent sure that you're looking for a socket for the biggest die in the set, if (if.....) that's an issue. I have no idea if one should suspect that issue from them or not.

 

[MrWhoopee]

36mm is the size of the rear axle nut on '63 and earlier VW busses. Everybody bought 1-7/16 sockets because they were cheaper and easier to get. Shouldn't be hard to find one.

 

[pstemari]

... Because I can't say I've done backflips over the quality of their HSS...

AFAIK Gearwrench dies are carbon steel, not HSS, same as most of the Irwin I've encountered. Irwin at least makes HSS taps and dies, but as i recall they cost 3-5x as much.

Sent from my Pixel 7 Pro using Tapatalk

 

[ssdesigner]

I see what the die measures. What does the socket measure?

Your die clearly measures 36.39mm
1-7/16 inches works out to 36.51mm

That should go.

Add to that, bolts/nuts are undersized from nominal, sockets and wrenches are oversized from nominal. That really should go. My first step to investigate would be the actual flat dimension inside the socket. See if the socket is a dud. Not common, but I've seen it on USA tool truck tools, so I'm sure any country could accomplish that if they put their mind to it. My second step to investigate would be the corner profile. Nuts and bolts (typically) don't have sharp corners, and there's a lot of "modifications" to a standard hexagon for extra grip reasons, and patent infringement reasons.

I don't know what's available to you locally and conveniently, but me, personally, I'd find an excuse to ride around to a few places that might sell such sockets, and see if I could get it to drop into one. I'd expect that 1-7/16 socket to be at least 1.440 or 1.450, (with additional slop kind of expected from some of the discount brands). That's 36.57mm and upwards... I'd bet there's a 1-7/16 socket "somewhere" that will fit that die quite well.

I've also got no idea what to expect of a Gearwrench die. Never used one. They've made some good stuff. Some of it really good. And they've made some poor stuff. Some of itreally poor. I would, just for giggles, measure across the whole set, see what their tolerances are, just to be 100 percent sure that you're looking for a socket for the biggest die in the set, if (if.....) that's an issue. I have no idea if one should suspect that issue from them or not.

Yeah, the socket does not measure above 36.21 mm in any direction. It's made by Zoyakki.

Funny enough, the smaller of the 2 size dies in this Gearwrench set is exactly 1", and a 1" socket fits perfectly. So they are only 1/2 a$$&@^!