looking for tap and die sets

[TreeBits]

trying to find a decent tap and die set that could be used in pen-making. I guess the same set could be used for woods and non-woods (acrylic, resin, etc). I'm sure there are posts on here already, but I can't get the search facility on here to work for me at all. Thanks in advance, Tom Hale

 

[PTownSubbie]

Tom,

Most of the taps and dies used by people on here are of the HSS type. Some use triple start taps and dies. These are not necessarily required to start experimenting and are pricey.

Buy some decent quality taps and dies. You can get some here: Victor Machinery www.victornet.com

If you want to spend the money on triple start taps and dies, I think Mike Redburn has them for sale on his site. www.silverpenparts.com

Hope I got that right.....:biggrin:

Hope that helps.

 

[mredburn]

Most of what you want to do can be better done with individual taps and dies than a set. Most of what we do takes finer threads than the sets provide. that doesnt mean you cant do it with the sets, it just may limit you. It would also be different if your going to have a use for the sets outsied of penmaking. I have Craftsman sets I picked up reasonalby off Ebay. I would recomend to start with that you use a 12mm x .75 for caps or 14m x 1 and wait on the triple starts for now. Some of the other sizes I use are 10mm x .5 and 10mm x .75. I recomend the 10 x .75 all around. If you want to build fountain pens you will have to decide on a feed supplier and buy teh specialty taps for that brand. WHether its Bock by Classic Nibs/ Indy Pen dance, or one of the other suppliers like Meister nib, or the Golden Nib.

 

[soligen]

If you want to make metal nose cones for roller balls, I recomend M8 x .75 (same as cigar nose cones) or M8 x .5

 

[glycerine]

Yeah, purchase them one by one. I have two sets (SAE and metric) and they are all too course for penmaking. Don't waste your money on sets.

 

[dogcatcher]

I am one that thinks buying a set is the way to start. In some cases the entire set is way cheaper than one specialty tap and die. The sets gives you a wide range to experiment with, not only for making pens but also for whatever else you might come up with. The Harbor Freight sets are reasonable and have a full range of metric and SAE. $40 for a set that can be used for a lot of things is better than $40 for specialty tap that you may or may not use more than a couple of times. Every so often you will find some used specialty taps and dies in the classifieds, because the buyer bought them and realized that making the specialty pens were not there thing. But you never see a full set for sale, because they have a lot of uses, not just pen making.

When I find I am using one of the dies or taps quite a bit I usually upgrade to a higher quality tap or die in my set. The higher grade tap and dies cut better and last longer, even the best grade of taps and does do wear out.