I have been having a little problem with taps of all different qualities and sizes swamping my cigar boxes. That's probably not the best way to store them. So, I have started trying to figure out a way to store them more efficiently. One thing that helped a lot was a plastic spice bottle that I put broken taps in. They are great for little pieces of tool steel used in small cutting tools, for example boring bars. The last straw was when somebody gave me a box of helicoil taps in both inch and metric. I said I don't use helicoil's, but he said that they were going in the trash anyway, so I might as well give them a try. I strip out a thread about once ever five to ten years, so I haven't thought of stocking this item, although my auto mechanic friends really like them.
Anyway, I found a drawer box of over 100 taps at a machinist liquidation sale. It was $20 which was worth trying. They were pretty much all name brands, or brands that I did not recognize. Since the person who bought them must have been discerning, I assume they were all the good HSS taps that one will find at the industrial supply and not the big box stores. There was UB, Butterfield, Balax, R&N, Hy-pro, Prototex, OSG and some odd Japanese brand. All the larger tap drawers were empty, and there were only taps up to 3/8 in inch and 6mm in metric, but that will do for me since I do have a few of the larger sizes. Most of my better taps are GTD or Hanson, so therefore not always HSS. This was a pretty good haul and should keep me stocked for a while.
This is the way to get good quality taps. If one is patient, they often appear at sales and liquidation events.
Anyway, I found a drawer box of over 100 taps at a machinist liquidation sale. It was $20 which was worth trying. They were pretty much all name brands, or brands that I did not recognize. Since the person who bought them must have been discerning, I assume they were all the good HSS taps that one will find at the industrial supply and not the big box stores. There was UB, Butterfield, Balax, R&N, Hy-pro, Prototex, OSG and some odd Japanese brand. All the larger tap drawers were empty, and there were only taps up to 3/8 in inch and 6mm in metric, but that will do for me since I do have a few of the larger sizes. Most of my better taps are GTD or Hanson, so therefore not always HSS. This was a pretty good haul and should keep me stocked for a while.
This is the way to get good quality taps. If one is patient, they often appear at sales and liquidation events.