cornwell tools tap and die sets
cornwell tools tap and die sets i don't typically buy alot of cornwell stuff, becasue i'm not sure if i'll have a cornwell guy if i ever change shops, and you can always find a snap on guy. but they had a 75 piece metric and standard master tap and die kit for like $250... less than 1/2 a snap on kit. anyone ever use these? he said they had a lifetime warantee, if i can find a cornwell guy...
At about 5 bucks a tap (Ace Hdwr) you could get a
lot of taps and dies onesy-twosey before you caught
up to the kit price, and personally I find I use only a
few; hell, older Chebbies only use a couple of SAE
thread types, the new ones a couple of metrics, etc.
If you know you'll be working mainly on certain models
or makes you will probably be buying a lot of pieces
that just sit, with a kit, and would probably be better
off buying the ones you know you'll need, with spares
(cuz they will break 2 minutes after the hardware store
closes, you know).
Take a look at somebody elses's set and just buy the
sizes that have bright threads, in his.
lot of taps and dies onesy-twosey before you caught
up to the kit price, and personally I find I use only a
few; hell, older Chebbies only use a couple of SAE
thread types, the new ones a couple of metrics, etc.
If you know you'll be working mainly on certain models
or makes you will probably be buying a lot of pieces
that just sit, with a kit, and would probably be better
off buying the ones you know you'll need, with spares
(cuz they will break 2 minutes after the hardware store
closes, you know).
Take a look at somebody elses's set and just buy the
sizes that have bright threads, in his.
buying them piece by piece is good for a DIY person who only works on their own car- but when you work at a shop like the origional poster does, you may as well but all of them. I work at a Hyundai dealer and have used every single tap in my Mac kit, with the exception of the NTP pipe thread one.
TECH Apprentice
Joined: Jul 2004
Posts: 374
Likes: 1
Heh, I probably use the NPT ones more then anything else, but of course I do a lot of fabrication vs dealing with **** that other people built.
For a long time I bought what I needed, and will say that the stuff that the local ace stocks are actually some of the nicer taps/dies that I’ve used (hanson stuff mostly, the rigid stuff is nice also, much more so then the big tool truck stuff), and what I ended up with is a good assortment of handles and taps that I use most of the time, and then I bought a pair of cheap Chinese ones to fill in the sizes that I didn’t have and rarely use. I’d bet that I have less then $100 in the pile.
If I could justify the cost I’d probably go with a complete rigid or hanson set if I was going to get them all in one lump…
For a long time I bought what I needed, and will say that the stuff that the local ace stocks are actually some of the nicer taps/dies that I’ve used (hanson stuff mostly, the rigid stuff is nice also, much more so then the big tool truck stuff), and what I ended up with is a good assortment of handles and taps that I use most of the time, and then I bought a pair of cheap Chinese ones to fill in the sizes that I didn’t have and rarely use. I’d bet that I have less then $100 in the pile.
If I could justify the cost I’d probably go with a complete rigid or hanson set if I was going to get them all in one lump…
