Some of the old Craftsmen sets, (I'm not sure about Napa) the good ones (Like Blue Point and others) are from the same maker, = ACE. You'll notice that if you decide to hunt them down. I go with the older sets vs the new because the dies are heavier (more material) and some dies sets are completely adjustable. They don't make them like that anymore, at a reasonable price anyway. You can find complete, hardly used older sets at a good price on ebay or amazon.
Or, quite a few folks collect carbide taps one at time as they need them. At times you can get lucky with Machinist type lots for sale and find a slue of carbide taps mixed with other misc cutting tools very cheap.
Anything close to that quality today and new will cost lots! Most of those old sets are better than what you can get today.[/QUITE]
I'd love to find a nice lot around here.
If you need to tap a new hole, you will generally know the size before you start your project. Skip the set and buy a tap set (taper, plug, bottoming) in just the size you need.
The cheap carbon steel sets are really for chasing existing threads to clean them up, and they work well for that purpose.
I have a carbon steel set that I use to clean paint and gunk out of holes, and I have quality HSS taps in 1/4-20, 5/16-18, 3/8-16, and other common sizes.
Good taps are expensive. Expect to pay at least $5 each.
That's about all I've ever used them for, chasing holes. My brother just got a nice thread restorer set but I'd like to have the versatility of taps too.
Try that sucker and see how it works. I got a bud bought a set like that from ebay for some pitiful poor price and it works. Its like the HF uni bit, 2 for under 20 dollars or 45 for a Greenelee, I got them both and couldn't tell which was which.
I remember a earlier set of 20 yrs ago that was cheap in Kmart or at some fleas but its rare to see one that cheap when it can be made fairly good competitive from China.
I'm agreeing, for chasing I really like the cases for organization and light duty taps for light applications.
I figured if I ever tapped a fresh hole I'd use lots of tap magic and go slow with them.
I like the idea that a guy can buy cheap and upgrade as needed. My brother bought a set of 101 driver bits, maybe 150 I don't recall, like 8 dollars. It wouldlnt have been worth it to sit on 80 or 100 or 200 worth of bits I never use but for the time or 2 we open the set and pirate a piece it worked great.
Same thing with 89 pc set at 26 $,,, it don't got to work too hard to earn its keep and save the day a time or 2, the downside risk is minimal.
Yeah, it seems anything specialized is either HF or Snap-on. No middle.
I bought a worse looking set than that at HF for chasing threads--something like a 29 piece set for $12.99. It is cheap ****, but for thread chasing it has worked just fine.
I now have a beautiful Kromedge Craftsman set I finally found on Ebay, but the HF set did fine for several years. ::shrug::
Do they really have chrome?
Saw those on fleabay.
