Tapped Out

June 9th, 2009

I Feel Like Donald O’Connor on His Tenth Take

There are two things you never want to have to pick out for yourself. Taps and drill bits. You would be better off killing yourself. The Enco catalog is mostly taps and dies, I’m pretty sure. The tap and die stuff starts on page 76 and ends on page 114. Drills aren’t quite as bad, but still pretty horrible. All drills and taps look exactly alike. I am still traumatized from going through them.

I ordered a couple of small tap/drill sets in HSS. I ordered the weird tap wrench Og and a forum dude recommended. I am pretending I don’t need drill bits. I don’t want to think about them. Ever.

Actually, I bought a pound or two of them a while back. Some Ebay guy sells mixed new and used bits by the pound. It’s not a bad deal. When I need a drill bit, I rarely know the exact size; I just look for one that will work for me. These will come in handy. They won’t be a good substitute for a real set, but they will allow me to avoid abusing a real set unnecessarily. I can reach for the cheap drills first, whenever possible.

I still haven’t made the final decision on a quality set, for a very good reason. They cost a TON. I’m hoping that if I put it off long enough, science will come up with a cheaper substitute for the drill bit.

Some forum guy says I’ll need a tapping head. I told him some other guy had said I wouldn’t need one, if I had a lathe I could reverse. Oh, no; that was nonsense! I needed a thing called a Procunier tapping head, and…here’s the good part…they come in different sizes, so you can’t just buy one!

Oh, yeah, THAT’S a surprise.

I plan to avoid that purchase even more doggedly than I avoid recycling, margarine, and Jehovah’s Witnesses.

The mill should be here next week. I’m really hoping I can make tool holders. I tried to pick out a 60° dovetail cutter today, but Og showed me this homemade job: look. Might be fun to try to make one.

The only really worthwhile thing I accomplished today, other than a Costco run, was washing out my motorcycle helmet. Damned thing got mildew in the liner during the garage’s raining-indoors phase. Not a pleasure to wear. And new helmets cost over $300. Iodophor really did the job on my saddlebags, so I blasted the helmet with it, too. I stuck it in the sun to dry, and then I picked it up an hour later, and it was still cool and wet on the inside. I should have realized it would insulate like a beer cooler. Helmets are full of foam. In fact, riders sometimes compare riding with a helmet to having a beer cooler on your head.

Do NOT get the idea that a beer cooler is a good helmet substitute. Never mind how I found out.

I stuck the helmet in the house. Hopefully the AC will dry it out eventually.

I better have some fried Costco and relax.

11 Responses to “Tapped Out”

  1. Jim Dunmyer Says:

    You don’t need a tapping head, IMO. I had a very nice one that I had a fella sell on eBay, it brought something like $6.50. <>

    You DO need a 115-piece drill set. Get a USA-made one and it should be OK, just stay away from Chinese on this, trust me.

  2. xc Says:

    Ok, stupid point, but if you want people to find the article by keyword you should make the html link the key phrases.

    For example: _look_ does nothing at google, but _home made 90 degree cutter _ does exactly what you might think it does.

    SEO is worse than owning tools.

    -XC

  3. Steve H. Says:

    I don’t write articles. Why would I want anyone to find the page by keyword, when they can click on the link?

  4. og Says:

    Get this set from MSC or a similar one. Bright finish HSS.

    http://www1.mscdirect.com/CGI/NNSRIT?PMPXNO=17507027&PMT4NO=65147287

    You will end up buying multiples of the most commonly used drills. But having every drill, letter, number, and fractional, will make a huge difference.

    A real hardcore geek will buy a toolroom drill index.
    http://www1.mscdirect.com/CGI/NNSRIT?PMPXNO=3298672&PMT4NO=0
    that’s what I use, and it saves me a ton of aggrivation. I have a couple dozen #7 drills, and I don’t have to hunt for them. Same for 1/2″. You can take your pound of drills and sort them out in one of these.

    Of course, you can ALSO build one of these drawer indexes from mahogeny you garbage picked.

  5. Steve H. Says:

    That Hertel set beats the price I found on Ebay for Rocky Mountain Twist Drill stub drills, but the Ebay jobs were cobalt.

  6. km Says:

    I find Jehovah’s Witnesses entertaining – you should be up to speed enough on Scripture to be able to enjoy toying with them.

  7. Steve H. Says:

    I prefer using the sprinklers.

  8. Ed Bonderenka Says:

    When talking to JWs, posit a doctrine or scripture and ask the quiet one “Isn’t that so?”. Amazing how fast there’s somewhere else they need to be..

  9. og Says:

    Cobalt is incredibly overrated.

  10. Steve H. Says:

    Maybe the HSS I’ve used is really bad. I’ve found that new HSS drills get dull the very first time you try to go through a 3/16″ angle iron. A one-minute job becomes a ten-minute job. After that, if you don’t sharpen the bit, it makes every job a chore. I got me a cobalt bit, and it went right through steel with no problems.

  11. Andy from Workshopshed Says:

    Steve, I’ve collected together some thoughts on tap terminology for home workshop

    http://www.workshopshed.com/2009/06/tap-terminology.html

    if your HSS drills are dulling quickly it could be that they are blunt to start with, you are letting them get too hot or you are running them too quickly. Don’t start with too small a pilot hole as the thinner drills can’t dispate the heat quite so easily as a large one