Anyone collect vintage Taps and dies?

[SquirrelsTools]

A gunsmith would use those smaller size screws and threads. So would a lot of other trades--typewriter and sewing machine repair, etc.

I've actually been looking into it, hadn't really done any research on it. Gunsmith seems like the answer from what I'm seeing. It seems that 4-48 and one of the others are almost exclusively armory sizes/very specific plane set screw sizes for that time period. Wild, but explains why it's in such good shape for the age of it. The box is also mahogany veneered so*fancy* and all..

 

[SquirrelsTools]

A nice set of card dies I restored

 

[SquirrelsTools]

This though, is one of my most prizes possessions. Russell reversible screw plate set B5. Not to be confused with wiley and Russell. Massive 24 inch die stock handle, all USS sizes. Most of the original taps, three replaced with period Card taps.

I say prized possession not because it's especially valuable, it's probably worth a few hundred bucks. But because it was rusted so hard that you couldn't open the box. It was just a heavy box I paid $10 for. The amount of painstaking care and time I took to get it back to beautiful is a memory I cherish. I obsessed over it for a week, soaked the box open, pulled apart each die (two took gentle heating) and picked out every engraved letter one by one. Hell, I even managed to save some label surprisingly. I'm not sentimental about many things in the shop, but this... Yep.

 

[Provincial]

I stopped by the local charity thrift store today to drop something off. I noticed this Reed pipe tap set, and for $5.00, I couldn't resist. Everything is there, and it appears to have seen little use.

 

[ecotec]

I have a few more sets, but these two are like new.

The SAE set is still in the original cellophane and has the receipt from 1975. I paid about $25 for both.

 

[tworley]

I've had these for probably 15 years now. I found them in my grandmas basement when we were cleaning out her house after she died. She had a husband who died in the early 80s. Only recently did I actually pull them out and clean them to see what they were. Its a mixture of Brubaker & Bros, Greenfield, Threadwell and Ace.

 

[d42jeep]

After a search, I was happy to see that Lugz had done all the necessary research on these thread files. I found this Jaw brand one in the sleeve at yesterday’s estate sale. I was hoping that it was the earlier Reiff & Nestor brand.
-Don

I found another Jaw made Nu-thred thread file on Thursday at an estate sale. I hadn’t run across one since 2023.
-Don

 

[genog]

Found a nice Threadwell box with quite a few vacancies yesterday


I'm working on filling the gaps....
It looks that I have more than enough dies, but I am rather light on taps

 

[Lesserstore]

I bought this used bottoming 10-32 pulley tap for a project, and didn't even realize that it was vintage. I looked up the brand: Winter, and that lead to a thread on Practical Machinist, which then lead to a (dead) link to a family website, but fortunately was saved on the wayback machine. Anyway, the company went out business in 1948.
Link to history:

Winter Brothers Tap & Die

 

[d42jeep]

I was unable to leave this Greenfield set behind when I spotted it at a sale last month.
-Don

Wow, is that lots of different size and pitch taps, or just lots of duplicates? If the former, I bet lots of abandoned sizes in there, just the thing for old tool repair.

After several months I finally got around to going through the GTD set anc putting it in order. In answer to the question from RTM, there are multiples of most taps. All of the taps are NC, which seems odd. Maybe they offered a similar set containing just fine taps. The drill bits are number rather than fractional and many of them are original GTD marked. I found a GTD tap holder in my Gerstner box to replace the unmarked one the set came with.
GTD tools from the Gerstner box.
Taps put in order.
Drill bits squared away.
Project complete.
-Don

 

[454ragtop]

^ What a strange set! Nothing like it in catalog 44, dated 10/43.

 

[jmwood]

 

[jmwood]

I just picked this set up today American Tap and Die Company Greenfield Massachusetts

 

[jmwood]

I just picked this set up today American Tap and Die Company Greenfield Massachusetts

 

[jmwood]

And this small tap set in it's original box

 

[jmwood]

Machine Screw Taps Greenfield Tap & Die

 

[454ragtop]

Picked up this large tap handle this weekend, 36" long. That's an 1-1/2" - 12 tap for reference. Says AM. T & D on it, American Tap & Die?

 

[59Sled]

Found this Ace 1E last week.

 

[d42jeep]

I found this rusty tap holder at a recent garage sale. It cleaned up pretty well and I added it to the random tap drawer. I’m not sure who made it.
-Don