Sometimes the most basic hand tools can be intimidating if you have never been taught how to use them. And sometimes the most complicated can be simple to use because you had someone show you how. The truth is, tools are supposed to make our lives easier and it is a shame when we don’t use them out of fear or intimidation. I will admit that there have been times in my life where I didn’t use a tool that would have made life much easier because I was intimidated by it when I shouldn’t have been. In my defense, I didn’t have YouTube to show me how to do just about anything on the planet.
Thankfully, the world does have YouTube now and that means that there are great videos available like this one from Eastwood, that show you how to use tools the right way. This makes it incredibly easy to get up to speed with a tool like a Tap and Die set that might be intimidating otherwise. And like the video shows, some simple material is all you need to practice with before moving on to the stuff that actually matters.
This is just one of the videos you’ll find at Eastwood that show you how to use tools effectively. Watch them and learn and be inspired.
lot of wrong here. first is buying the proper tools. hi speed steel drills, taps and dies are ok for plastic. get into real metal that has an attitude requires more. cobalt drills, cobalt taps and dies. ‘gun’ taps are better because they are stronger. if you get real good at tapping thru holes, you can use a slow rpm drill and tap thru. another tool is a cobalt center drill. this is the hole starter for the tap drill. also required for ease of tapping is a weldon countersink. most of all is if you can use a drill press, you will much better off.
btw, if you are drilling or tapping soft material like copper, lead or even some plastics, you need to flatten the drill tip. you won’t be eating the material.
when you do testing by thousands of holes, you get some knowledge
At my old job anything smaller than 3/8-16 were done with an air tap gun.
3/8-16 and up got done with an air impact. Production work meant no time for dinkin’ around with tap handles. Is an impact gun the wrong tool? Yup. Fast? You betcha. 😉