Alan – Cannot reccomend any particular supplier but would urge you to go for HSS kit at the least. Cheap carbon steel taps and dies are a complete waste of money unless you want to build models in balsa wood! —— Rik

Alan, I'd argue that the unsplit dies I have are so accurate, you don't need split ones. My split BA and ME dies need to be adjusted every time I use them, but I've never cut a metric thread with my dies that wasn't spot on. The taps in these sets are very good too, the taper tap just scores a deep line, the second tap is very 'tight' while the plug tap gives a full on size thread. This means you can go for full thread engagement and also use the second tap for things like expanding mandrels or studs you want to be really solidly in place.

Neil

I was looking Cromwells weekly issue paper and there are some nice bargains in it. There was a set of drills and taps in a box for a reasonable price. Perhaps a visit to your nearest Cromwell depot might be worth it. Ther were several bargains in the milling cutter sets as well.

Clive

Edited By Clive Hartland on 01/06/2013 22:31:04

Get some decent ones for best, but for simple hold-things-together jobs those occasionally found at Aldi and Lidl are surprisingly effective.. I've bought M3, 4, 5, 6 sets which include crude tap and die wrenches there for £5 or £6, and once got a set for M3 to M12 plus 1/8" and 1/4" BSP and all the tapping drills for around £15. You only get one tap (second cut, by the look of it), of each size, so they aren't much use for short blind holes, and the dies aren't split.

Andy

Hi Alan ,

You may find it much more useful in practice to buy taps and dies individually as required and to buy good quality ones .

Sets always have the problem that only a few of the sizes ever get used and the rest are just expensive surplus .

I now keep a small stock of taps in sizes that I use often – at least one working set and one set of spares . Other taps I have one's and two's of built up over many years .

I have dies in relatively fewer sizes and mostly one each size . Only exceptions are a few sizes I use regularly on tough materials – I've got spares of those .

Best taps to use are TiN coated HSS Serial taps . I order these now for all replacements and new requirements .

MikeW

This looks like my set, but in a blue instead of grey box!

My approach woudl be to buy mid price (like this set). You then have all sizes just in case, all of quality that won't just fail straight away. When they eventually wear out, it will be the ones you use most so just replace those individual sizes with expensive ones.

Neil

Neil, Is this the set?Regards, Bear..

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Many years ago I bought a cheap set of metric solid dies and taps. They soon got recycled; it looked like somebody had ground the 'taps' using an angle grinder. There is no point in buying cheap cutting tools; they're just a waste of money.

Regards,

Andrew

I have a cheap metric set, and I would say it is of similar ilk to the set Andrew condemned. I would not class the set I'm recommending as being in the same category at all.For my own piece of mind I've just gone and checked the fit of some of the threads I've made using them, and they are all good close fits with commercial screws and nuts.

Don't forget industry uses metric taps and dies by the hundreds of thousands, if not millions. They don't have time to waste on adjustable dies. I am sure these 'cheap' sets are just a small stream 'tapped off' from the huge flow to industry and that this is why the price is hugely lower than ME, BA or Whitworth taps.

Just avoid the very cheap carbon steel sets with only 1 or 2 taps in each size – these are NOT used by big industry and are much less well finished.

Neil