Office of Steam Forum for Model & Toy Steam Gas & Hot Air Engines

Hi all,
I am going to get a tap and die set. The plan is to use them and as and when its needed replace them over time with individual tools of better quality. I have read bits and pieces on the web regarding coarse/fine and what the differences are for use and the reasons for choosing fine over coarse and vice versa but I am still unsure what would be best to get as a set for model engineering. Fine would be better to deal with vibration? What do you folks buy/use for live steam projects? I have been mulling all this over for ages but I am now in a position to actually buy something!
Thanks
Dave

A set may have value for general around the house kinds of things, but for our models I think you may well be better off simply buying the tap or die you need specific to the application and as needed. Most sets end up with only a few of the items ever used, and are generally of inferior quality anyway, unless you are paying eye-popping prices for such a set.

Like Stoker said, for model work you are better off buying what you need individually.  When you start a project, buy the taps and dies listed for the build and after a few projects you won't need to buy any more.

The failure mode for a cheap tap is breaking-off in your work which could be catastrophic.  Buy the best taps you can and I recommend the 3 tap set as sometimes the bottoming tap is very handy. My good taps are either Greenfield Tap & Die (now Widia), Presto for BA or any other quality tap from an industrial supplier (not from a big box or hardware store).

For dies the best ones you can adjust with a screw. Accuracy aside, a cheaper die usually won't destroy your work.

Excellent advice so far, buy as you need them and don't go cheap, if you are working with SAE that is particularly true with 6-32 taps, for some reason they are more prone to breaking than the other sizes.

Many years ago I had a roommate that was really particular about having matched sets of tools and tended to give me a hard time because I had a mixed batch of wrenches etc.
His father was a retired machinist and brought him a box of assorted brands of taps and dies, when he left he handed them to me, saying he would stick with his boxed matched set made offshore. I still have most of the Greenfields and Butterfields 30 years later.