Cheap Tools.... Grrrr

**ventureoverland** · 16th September 2014, 08:37 AM

I hate cheap tools... But unfortunately I seemed to have collected quite a few over the years

A wrong I am slowly correcting

The icing on the cake for me yesterday was when I needed to put an M12 thread onto the end if a mild steel rod and tap an M12 hole in some stainless.

Now, my choice of weaponry yesterday was this... Goliath M12 tap, a cheap Chinese M12 tap, Starrett tap wrench and a cheap Chinese M12 die plus holder.

I picked up the Chinese M12 tap and Starrett holder to attack the stainless... It was a pig to start and didn't clear the chips well (but at least the Starrett gripped the tap!), so with a slight blue tinge to the air I swapped the tap for the Goliath and the second half of the thread was nice to do - good tools, good job.

Onto the mild steel. By comparison I thought this would be easy as the mild steel is soft... NO. My OD was 11.80mm but all the die would do is roll the edge of the bar an wouldn't bite. A quick check to see if I had the die in the right way... Yes. I shaved the OD to 11.50, still no luck but achieved 2 or 3 more rolled edges.

Thing is the die has only been used once before and looks to be in good condition, but it clearly isn't!

In the end I decided to grind a bit of HSS and try a single point thread on the lathe, but by this time the air was definitely blue and I thought I should wait for another day before trying!

Crap tools just make life hard! I wonder I this wisdom comes from age or a simple depletion of ones patience reservoir...

Thx
Jon

**th62** · 16th September 2014, 10:56 AM

Twenty years ago I was living in Malaysia, tools were cheap over there, combine that with the exchange rate and they became super cheap; so, I bought bucket loads: taps and dies, drop saws, three boxes of cut off wheels, micrometers, reamers, drills, hammers, punches, hole cutters, industrial sized scissors, tapes, rules, rotary table, milling vice, end mills, clamp sets and even a three phase mill I converted to single phase while there. Most tools available there were Asian, but there were also brand names available like Mitutoyo, Makita, Record and so on.

Because of that two year tool collecting bonanza, I managed to amass a fair collection of taps and dies up to 16mm. Most sizes I managed to get in two pitches, some in three.

A lot of the smaller taps broke - sub 5mm sizes and they have been replaced by taps I bought in Australia, mostly Chinese, some of which have also broken. I still have every single die I bought and all the 8mm + taps. The set of button dies I also still have, although I have lost one or two along the way. All still cut fine, even the Australian bought C#!ne$e brands.

I'm very happy with my Asian tools, and all work as intended.
In particular I'm very happy with my 125mm Asian angle grinder I bought over 10 years ago and have used regularly since buying. My 230mm Hitachi (with a missing original trigger switch) sits on the shelf largely unused. Two 100mm Makitas, one 150mm Makita, an AEG piece of rubbish and a Bosch, all went in the bin years ago. I still have a Bosch 1/2" hammer drill I bought in Malaysia, but rarely use as it just doesn't have the power to drive anything over a 6mm bit. Because of that my ROK cordless I bought a few years ago gets a caning. If it breaks tomorrow, based on price and use, I'd still be very happy.

How do you measure 'quality'? brand name, or by longevity and fit for purpose.

**eskimo** · 16th September 2014, 11:03 AM

I too had to do a thread a a few years ago...the cheap stuff started okay but gave up halfway thru.

I now make sure that I only buy HSS

I bought some HSS ones from CTC which seem okay since I have had them, at this stage I cant complain like I can about carbon stuff

but I am slowly putting together a collection of name brand HSS taps and dies

**th62** · 16th September 2014, 11:30 AM

I too have a set of carbon dies and taps, I've never managed to cut a decent thread with them. I only keep them for chasers and cleaners.

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Cheap Tools.... Grrrr

Bucket loads of quality.

Chasing good tools.

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