Thread: Tap and die sets.....tap magic

Originally Posted by variant22

Frost = Chinese made
Sutton = Australian made

Despite Frost being owned by Sutton.

The issue with Frost drill sets has been covered before. I am trying to find the thread. I agree with what has been said about them. I suggest that when buying drills have a look at what they are designed to cut. If it is claimed they are able to cut stainless steel and alloy steels then they should be ok. A2 HSS also should be good. If they only claim the ability to cut steel then be careful. I have a set each of metric and imperial frost drills which I bought before I became aware. They do cut steel ok but will not touch stainless steel. If you want to observe work hardening of stainless steel this is the way to see it happenning. I suggest you mark them in some way and use them only for mild steel and soft materials.

I bought a set of Milwaulkee metric drills up to 13mm for $54.00 from EBay. They are good drills with split points and ground flats for the chuck to grip in the bigger sizes (4mm and up). I have found them to be quite capable of tougher work. I see that they are no longer available that cheap now. If I buy individual drills now I generally stick with Sutton Viper drills. Sutton is about the only brand sold in this area as individual drills.

Dean

What I did years ago was buy a set of metric and a set of imperial (UNC UNF)... It had dies and intermediate taps only..

Then as they wore out, I replaced the ones with better quality ones as I found they were the ones I used the most, but if something comes along I still will probably have something that will thread it out of the cheap sets...

Originally Posted by TKO

Just a look at what they had in the ww11 years and they are still doing there job don't think they make them like this any more, they are ex army had these since 1960 brought out from Uk in 1966 don't have to worry about snapping the rubbish handles as supplied to day when the going gets tough, these were 1941 model's.









Eddie

Usually any thing with ''Donald Duck imprint ^ [D D W D] is usually good stuff as the Q A and inspections by govts imposed high standards and tolerances.0.02 cents worth.Wartime makes a big difference to industry.