Any reason I shouldn't scrap these?

[CoogarXR]

A friend of mine passed away, and his wife gave me some of his tools. One box must have spent some time outside, because it is VERY rusty (along with everything in it). Anyhow, there are some sockets I am going to try to save with Evaporust. But there are also some large taps and dies (like 3/4"-ish). But they are very rusty, and I know nothing about machinist-type things. I would think that a rusty cutting tool wouldn't be worth saving. I know I'll never use them, but I didn't know if somebody else could. Or should I just scrap them?

TL;DR- Are rusty taps/dies worth anything to anybody, or should I toss 'em?

 

[Provincial]

I would not keep a rusty tap or die. They need perfect, sharp edges to work properly.

 

[MShaw]

What he said, definitely

 

[woody 73]

Aa s general rule a machinist would not use them, rust just dulls the **** of them. I tend to use them to clean up old used nuts & bolts.

If you had to buy those 3/4 ones new the sticker shock alone would kill me.

Funny story and one I will never forget, many years ago at a yard sale the guy had tons of vintage tools sitting out in his yard and all sitting in large paint buckets, filled to the top in water after all the storms in the area. I was pulling out some great old tools all ruined by being pitted very bad. I asked him why he did not keep them in the garage and he just shook his head and said he could care less, shame one bucket was filled with all taps and dies.

 

[drivesitfar]

Coogar: have you tried or set up an electrolysis tank yet? or even putting tools in vinegar or evaporust would maybe save some of them. not sure tap and dies would still be ok, but they might and any of these above methods are fairly cheap cause you can use evaporust for several project before it goes bad.

any pictures of taps/dies or sockets or other rusty stuff?

 

[blazemaster83]

It depends how much rust is on them. I have a machine shop and have made some great purchases on craigslist on drawers full of taps/dies and some of them looked quite bad, but after cleaning up they are still sharp.

Like woody said they still may be usable for cleaning bolts and nuts, I try not to use good taps for this.

There is a point where I will chuck it in the trash of course.

 

[woody 73]

As a side note even the use of chemicals like vinegar or evaporust will dull the taps and dies I kid you not.

 

[6PTsocket]

It depends how much rust is on them. I have a machine shop and have made some great purchases on craigslist on drawers full of taps/dies and some of them looked quite bad, but after cleaning up they are still sharp.

Like woody said they still may be usable for cleaning bolts and nuts, I try not to use good taps for this.

There is a point where I will chuck it in the trash of course.

I try not to use cutting taps for cleaning threads at all. I don't want to risk any more loss of metal. Thread chasing taps are made for that job

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[Thumper68]

I had used vinegar to clean up many taps with light surface rust, great for chasing threads where I don't want to use a good tap. Even a dull taps will work for that.

 

[2oolhound]

When I'm scrapping something together around the shop any thread cutting tool will beat going out and finding a new one in town so I'll use rusty or dull ones I might have on hand. If they aren't really bad you never know where you can get by using them.

If I'm working on good machinery where you want threads to hold and stand up to repeated use no way will I use rusty threading tools.

 

[Corndoggeh]

Show us some pictures? Lighter surface rust would be okay in my book, but if there is any pitting or dulling on the cutting edge their hoopajooped.

 

[CoogarXR]

I'll see if I can snap a picture later today if I make it over there.

 

[Packard V8]

FWIW, it's relatively easy to sharpen a tap. A bit more difficult to sharpen a die, but still possible. A Dremel pointed correctly will do a good enough job for home shop use.

Rather than toss them, fill a USPS Small Flat Rate Box, tape securely and send it my way. I'll post photos of if they were usable and if so, how they cleaned up.

jack vines

 

[rlitman]

As a side note even the use of chemicals like vinegar or evaporust will dull the taps and dies I kid you not.

Acid will sharpen a file. Why won't it sharpen a tap?

 

[MoonRise]

Acid will sharpen a file. Why won't it sharpen a tap?

A file needs a sharp edge on the file teeth.

A tap or die needs sharp edges and the correct size. Once the acid eats away at the metal, the tap/die is no longer the correct size.

 

[Oregon rock crusher]

Probably limited in usefulness as taps although as several others have mentioned they can be sharpened. Still, a tap is a chunk of high speed steel which could be used for other purposes such as a boring bar in a lathe or otherwise repurposed to useful cutting tools, especially if you have a tool and cutter grinder and a lot of extra time to screw around with such things. Ed.

 

[partsproduction]

Many times I've needed a special form tool and went looking through my very valuable scrap HSS treasure chest.

When I first started machining back in the stone age I saw where a machinist had welded a piece of HSS to a bar of steel viola! a boring bar! For that purpose rust or dullness doesn't matter a bit, it gets ground where it needs to be sharp anyway.
When I started up my commercial shop I stopped by a retiring machinists shop and saw a box of bits and pieces, he must have read my mind because he volunteered "You never throw anything way in a machine shop".

It bothers my wife but yeah, that's true.

 

[bmxdad]

A friend of mine passed away, and his wife gave me some of his tools. One box must have spent some time outside, because it is VERY rusty (along with everything in it). Anyhow, there are some sockets I am going to try to save with Evaporust. But there are also some large taps and dies (like 3/4"-ish). But they are very rusty, and I know nothing about machinist-type things. I would think that a rusty cutting tool wouldn't be worth saving. I know I'll never use them, but I didn't know if somebody else could. Or should I just scrap them?

TL;DR- Are rusty taps/dies worth anything to anybody, or should I toss 'em?

If they are a high cobalt cutter they shouldn't have any rust. Take a wire brush to them. If you have a good fine grain grinding wheel, try touching the cutting side ... just a kiss to sharpen them up. Then try it out ... you'll know right away if they are any good.

 

[CoogarXR]

Here are 3 pics of the dies, as found:

And the nasty tool-tray where they were found:

 

[CoogarXR]

And the taps:

 

[Davefr]

And the taps:

I'd toss them.

 

[bmxdad]

There not of high quality, though the dies look OK. The one big fine tooth tap looks OK too ... the others are junk.

If you have a lathe, I'd keep them for the tool steel.

 

[blazemaster83]

Yup, i'd toss those too.

 

[Teenager with old tools]

You can send me the dies. I'll either turn them into a sculpture or art or some sort of display.
Pm me and let me know

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