Taps (as in & dies)

[Cupboard]

Does anyone have any opinion on brands that are not rubbish?

I needed an M5 tap yesterday. Only one of our kits had one in, it was the only one in the kit that had been used and it was completely blunt. Having got rather annoyed by cheap taps that seem to be made out of plastic, I've bought what I hope is a middle of the road hand-tap set from Dormer of M3, M4, M5, M6, M8, M10 for about £40. I'm not expecting to be cutting threads all day, every day, but something that will do for occasional use and last a while is required.

I've got the day off today and was having a look at what else I could have bought, and found a set from CK Tools at an attractive price. Now usually when something is cheap and has a relatively large selection of tools that means they're rubbish, but I've had good experiences with CK Tools tools before.

http://cpc.farnell.com/ck-tools/t4032/tap-die-set/dp/TL05699

Worth a punt do you think? We don't have much in the way of small dies but do occasionally have the need for some.

One thing that doesn't help is that a lot of what I end up repairing (as opposed to the other farm staff) is stainless stuff for our cheese factory.

[ducttapetech]

Never used that brand, but they look to be OK. I am like you, large kit for little money tends to be junk.

Nate

[hiraethus]

For stainless you need to get the best you can.  We do a lot with 303 and 316 grades here at work and get through a lot of taps.  Dormer seem ok, but if there's one particular size you keep wearing out, it might be worth considering a solid carbide tap or two.

[PTRSAK]

We used to do a lot of stainless steel work at the robotics company I worked for a while back.

We found that the spiral fluted taps did a far better job in stainless steel and were much less likely to bind up and break.

We also had a special "vegetable based" taping lubricant in an aerosol. Can't remember the brand but it was food safe and was actually one of the best lubes around for stainless.  It was probably just olive oil at $35 a can.

[Cupboard]

 

we have loads of cutting fluid aerosols and for stuff that has to be food safe I just wash it afterwards.

Where possible we're moving away from stuff that needs lubrication, the thing in question here had a chain drive that had rusted to nothing but the case was full of bits of rust. I got called to look at it, peered in to the case, had a bit of and  moment wrapped it up and removed it. The chain is being replaced with a belt 

The other option would have been to fill the whole case with food grade grease but a belt is cheaper and I think better.