Threading dies that don't suck?

[royesses]

I bought my 40 piece Craftsman tap and die set in the late sixties for around $30. Most of the set is still intact after fifty years. They were advertised at the time as Chromedge. I don't know for sure if they were HSS or carbon steel but had always assumed HSS.

MSC sells some HSS sets. There is a 40 pc. Interstate brand set for $144 (Enco user discount applied). I have bought Interstate individual taps in recent years and have had good luck with them.

I waited for the MSC 40 to 60% off sales on their house brand (Interstate) and purchased complete sets of HSS and lots of bottoming and left hand taps and dies. Most were 60% off. They have been very good and I have no complaints. One 2.5 mm tap broke when I tried to clean out the threads in a plastic toy for my grandson. The tap was quench cracked but no other problems have showed up. They cut 304, 4130 and 6061 T65 regularly and are very sharp. Those Chromedge sets are highly sought after and hard to find but high quality.

Roy

 

[WarrenP]

I bought my 40 piece Craftsman tap and die set in the late sixties for around $30. Most of the set is still intact after fifty years. They were advertised at the time as Chromedge. I don't know for sure if they were HSS or carbon steel but had always assumed HSS.

MSC sells some HSS sets. There is a 40 pc. Interstate brand set for $144 (Enco user discount applied). I have bought Interstate individual taps in recent years and have had good luck with them.

I have a craftsman tap and die set bought in the 70's by my father. It served him well all these years and still work very well for me now. Cant complain about them.

 

[C-Bag]

HF quality is all over the board. My set from 6 years ago is still going strong after many projects. HF is not consistant in anything.

That is absolutely true. They are constantly changing suppliers. Don't know if it's price or outfits in China going under but it's a real crapshoot what you are going to get. There is a trend though of new lines that have names like Hercules and Bauer that are their "premium " tools that are much more expensive than the lines of the past, some with names and some generic. They are priced more closely to traditional names like Dewalt etc that I'm not sure are made here anymore.

I needed a good compound mitre saw and tried to get what everybody said was bulletproof Ridged 10". 5 stars in every place I looked. The only local dealer was Home Dump and it was not in stock, couldn't order it online and they would NOT transfer from another store over 80mi. away! The only saw's available were 12", none with 5stars and all $250 more!

After almost 2hrs of searches and calls on the Ridgid I ended up at HF. They had the new Hercules 12" dual compound "pro" saw(made in Taiwan!) for $50 more than the Ridgid I wanted but was not going spend a tank of gas and a whole day to go buy. I for the life of me will never understand what goes through corporate bozo's heads where brains are supposed to be.

 

[ACHiPo]

I should have also noted that the only really "good" die is an automatic die, such as a Geometric (and others, but Geometric is the easiest to set up).

John,
I looked up Geometric dies (dice?). Hokey smokes they're spendy! Are they universal, i.e. does one Geometric die cut a wide range of diameters and pitches?
Evan

 

[MrWhoopee]

John,
I looked up Geometric dies (dice?). Hokey smokes they're spendy! Are they universal, i.e. does one Geometric die cut a wide range of diameters and pitches?
Evan

One set of dies (4 pieces) cuts one thread. They are a production device. When mounted on a turret or the tailstock of a lathe, they cut threads up to a set stop point, then the die head opens, allowing retraction without stopping or reversing the spindle. The die head has a lever to allow both a roughing and finishing pass. They are a very fast device for producing threads on multiple parts. Not suitable for one-off.

Here's video

 

[ACHiPo]

John,
Thanks. I saw a new one at Travers for ~$1500. Figured that might not be bad if it replaced a set of dies. As a one-off it’s a no-go.
Evsn

 

[MrWhoopee]

John,
Thanks. I saw a new one at Travers for ~$1500. Figured that might not be bad if it replaced a set of dies. As a one-off it’s a no-go.
Evsn

$1500 would be for the die head, it will accept different thread chasers. The individual chaser sets (which are single thread size) are more in the $90 range.

 

[Taborclock]

I work mainly with brass and leaded steel. I bought an inexpensive tap and die set when I started out, and replace the sizes I use a lot with quality HSS as needed. I single point anything external over a 1/4 -20 now. Good taps and dies always payoff in preventing aggravation and are worth it. Just build as you go.

 

[PHPaul]

Sorry for resurrecting an old thread, but this seemed to be the logical place for my question.

I have an ancient Crapsman set of taps and dies that is plumb wore out. Plus it's the cheaper carbon steel set to start with. I want to upgrade and am looking at some HSS sets from Shars: like these.

Prices seem pretty reasonable if they truly are HSS.

If anyone has one of these sets, I'd appreciate some feedback. TIA.

 

[9t8z28]

It depends on which kit you purchased from HF. Some of their kits are crap and some are good. If you broke the die holder then I am almost positive you bought their $15 set, not the $40 set. The difference in quality is big. I have this set: https://www.harborfreight.com/60-pc-sae-metric-tap-and-die-set-60366.html
It works great. I’ve had it for about three years and I’ve used just about every tap and die. The only issue I’ve ever had is two of the SAE dies are not cut perfect and I broke one of the taps, which could’ve been my fault.
It sounds to me like you have this set since you state you broke the die holder ?
https://www.harborfreight.com/40-pc-carbon-steel-sae-tap-and-die-set-62831.html