131PCS Sae and Metric Coated Bearing Steel Tap and Die Rethreading Kit

 

Materials are of ok quality. The coating just rubs off after a few taps. Nothingspecial, just looks nice. The dies are not very well made. It looks like they used their own tap and left material hanging on the inside and didn't clean anything up. Just tapped the dies and straight in the box. Good price for how many parts there are. Not sure if I'd buy this again, I might just cad a lining, print it so it actually holds parts down and replace any broken with a better quality one as I go. 136 pics for about 160 wasn't too bad. Each piece can coast from 1$-10$ for better quality if not more. Some even go for 17$+ so all in all relatively happy. Relatively. If you are a hobbies and probably won't be tapping more than acrylic BUY IT!!!!! For steel and harder material tapping let's just day the i didn't get as many taps out of them as other brands I've tried. Not bad though. Not great either. If you like it for the case. It is maybe worth like 10-20$ the lining is kindnof brittle and to get to the other taps you have to lift the top layer to get to the bottom. And they have to be stacked the same direction or everything spills. Nothing is held on. Poor design on their part. Pretty good space saving design, and likely cost of production but the plastic is so brittle and breaks easily if you're not gentle. New brands could use gear wrench as a benchmark for new tool making/design. (Not the best brand but still not a bad place to start)

Nice set missing the two gauges

Warning for all tap and die sets.....just in case your new to theseYou must use care with these as with all taps... they are fragile tools that can snap off if improperly used and disappoint you by loss of tool and at same time a very hard piece of steel stuck inside your project.How would I rate this particular set, on a scale of 1 being absolute trash I wouldn't give to someone I disliked and 10 being the best I have ever used.This would get a 4 this is not as low as it sounds. I have a full on machine shop here at the house. A vertical mill (Bridgeport) and a horizontal mill (van norman) as well as 3 lathes and a metal shaper...and all welding disciplines. So trust me when I say I have used some very very very nice equipment, and very very nice tools in my time....the above is home shop tools for me.Ok so 4 is due to alloy "bearing" steel construction, I prefer high speed steel because it doesn't move as much ...and wears better. The 4 is also because they TIN coated these...a definite upgrade over plain steel as the TIN coating makes for a nice hard finish and a nice slippery finish.Most homeowners, weekend warriors, and home repair or home car repair guys could use these for a lifetime of use and never feel under prepared. Just make sure the hole to tap is actually the right size... use lubricant, take your time, and you should be golden. Same for cleaning up old threads or damaged threads something these Excell at. The dies are much easier to use as they are less prone to breakage.If you Use these instead in a business type setting, and only for repairs and occasionally these will work great.If you depend 100% on these to work great day in and day out to make you money..... and the parts made greatly outprice this set then get very good tools... from USA, Germany, Poland, Japan and a few others....pay 8x as much for these and be comfortable in that choice.For all other typical homeowner type things, this set will do the job at a reasonable cost.What do I do... I use a set like this to back up my high end tools... the taps I use all the time are premium high end. The ones that I do not use regularly reside in a kit and are used when needed and please me well that way.

Right up front I was given this tap & die set free of charge in exchange for an honest review. I already own a tap & die set (about 75 pieces) so I can compare the two and give you an honest assessment of this set.The first thing I notice right away is the beautiful hard metal case that this entire set comes in. My other set came in a blown plastic case that is not all that hard or sturdy. On the plastic case if you push down hard enough with your thumb it will dent inward, possibly permanently. The fact that this comes in a hard metal case is such a huge plus especially because you get SO MANY individual items in the set it’s heavy! Once you release the clasps and open the lid you find that all the individual tap and die pieces are resting in an extremely thin plastic holding “case” with a clear plastic cover over the top. If I have one complaint about this whole set this would be it. I know it would cost more money to accomplish this but it would be wonderful if all the pieces would be held in place with some sort of hard foam rather than the very thin plastic that it currently comes in. The weight of all the tools and pieces makes it very difficult to pull the two layers out of the metal case or at least remove the top layer to get to the tools in the bottom layer. There is nowhere to put your fingers in order to pull up and remove the top layer to get to the tools in the bottom layer and this is quite frustrating. Other than this issue this whole set is awesome.A tap & die set is not something you will be using on the regular. I guarantee, however, that when you need one you will regret not having one. I recently ordered a sou vide cooker and the little clamp that attaches the cooker to the container had completely stripped female threads and the die set saved the day. I drilled some holes in a piece of aluminum with my drill press and I was able to use the tap set was able to make the holes threaded to receive a few machine screws. Truly a useful thing to have. The nice thing about this set is that you get so many pieces here that you will most likely never need another set or be in need of a tool or size that does not come in this set. All pieces are expertly machined and although I haven’t used every piece in here, I have found no quality issues with the ones I have used.Do I recommend this set to you? I’d say if you’ve used a tap & die set before and know how darn handy they come in when you need them and want a very nice quality set with near infinite standard and metric sizes then I wholeheartedly recommend this to you. If you’ve never used a tap & die set but were thinking about getting one, you may want to buy a smaller set (much like my smaller 75 piece set I currently own but will be giving away) for less money. If you’re the type of person who would rather own a very nice set and never have to buy another one then I would indeed recommend this to you.If you found this review helpful, consider letting me know with the button below. Thank you.