Well eastwood (eastwoodcompany.com) has nice set, but all sets seem to give you
metric/SAE sizes. the bugeye is all sae, so I just bought the individual taps
and dies and tap handles at Ace hardware ( possibly the best store in the
world) Most taps are $4 and you need a 0-1/4 and 1/4-1/2 tap handle and a die
handle. Id get taps/dies in the following sizes 6/32 8/32 10/24
10/32 1/4-20 1/4-28 5/16-20 5/16-24, and so on up to 1/2.
Whats Sae, sae is US fractional sizes, they come in both coarse (NC national
coarse) and fine, (NF national fine). All taps you buy at hardware stores/sears
are 75% threads. This means the height of the thread is not the full depth,
they alledge its strong enough. You can buy 100% taps/dies but I dont know
where. So whats with all these numbers?
1/4-28 this is a 1/4 inch diameter NF bolt with 28 tpi (threads per inch) every
tap needs a particular sized drill bit usually you can buy a booklet that lists
sizes. The eastwood kit $90. It probably costs more to buy them individually
now that I think about it. NF is the higher tpi #, NC lower. YOu can typically
only get NC SS bolts. -Josh
PS a tip, dont try and die cut grade 8 bolts, its tough.
pps there are some threads that arent NC/NF,like the bugeye gas tank drain
plug, but most are nc/nf.
Subject: taps and dies
Help!
Before I reinstall them, I need to retap the windshield mounting holes, as
well as the ones in the exhaust manifold. I was at Sears today and looked at
tap and dies sets. They offer a confusing assortment of different types of
kits up to $150. I passed on buying anything, since I need a group consensus
of what to buy before I fork out the dough. I don't mind spending the cash,
but I hate to buy the top end if I'll probably never use most of it.
I saw mostly metric and standard sets, but aren't most of the MG bolts SAE
(is this fine threaded?)? I'm not real sure what that even means, but I know
that I never have a nut around the shop that will fit anything on the MGs.
So please advise the beginner mechanic here. I plan to mostly just work on
the MGs and not hassle with our other American made vehicles.
Thanks,
Monte
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