Re: What Is A Good Set Of Taps and Dies?

[DAN ANDERSON]

I’m like powerdyn. I have Hanson, Greenfield, etc. from 40 to 50 years ago. Some are dull, but I find dull taps work better on aluminum for cleaning a hole. Most of my new taps come from Ace Hardware. Never HF, junk! You have a real problem when you break a tap off in a hole. My chasing dies are just that. The hex nut style for chasing threads. I rarely cut new threads, just clean up old threads.
If rebuilding a powerhead I re-tap every hole in the block. I do this quickly by driving a nut onto the top of the tap. A stainless nut of appropriate size is soft enough to drive onto the square head of the tap. I use a air rachet turned down (or electric drill (with slip chuck) to drive a bottom tap to the bottom of each hole. The hole is blown out with an air gun with a copper tube on it. The block is then washed and blown out again. Things go together real well after that. Any problems you run into can be repaired before you get Into the middle of your rebuild.
I love quality tools!

Dan in TN