Decent tap and die set (metric) under £40 in UK?

I do alot of experimenting and designing work, have done for years. I've never bought a tap and die set tho, i've always been able to use those at my work. However, i've since moved on and now looking for a set XD. I've found several sets of carbon steel or tungsten steel, but i'm not too sure which one's better! I work alot in brass and steel, especially when making parts for my experimental extruders .

Could anyone help me out a bit with all your vast knowledge?

Ollie.

This large kit from B&Q is only £31.79 here
But you don't really need anything that big. I bought a 10 piece B&Q kit for about £12, with M4, M5, M6 and M8 taps and dies, die holder and tap wrench. Most holes will be in this range, and you don't need anything too fancy to work brass. Steel might need a higher quality kit. You might also want a M3.5 tap to hob bolts for extruders, but you can surface hob bolts with larger taps. This has been enough for my hot end experiments, along with a good set of drills, and a pedestal drill, which is occasionally used as a vertical lathe to accurately centre drill brass bolts - [www.thingiverse.com]
Hope that helps.

Hmm i need an m7 rly atm, how high a quality is tht large b&q set then? N is carbon steel
Better than tungsten for taps n dies? Never rly thought about it till
Now..

Edit.. Just found a CLARKE 33 PC METRIC UNF BSP TUNGSTEN TAP AND DIE SET on ebay for £35, they any good? They're gunna get a hell
Lotta use out of em....

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/20/2011 06:25PM by Ollie.

Don't buy them from B&Q - i bought their "Carbon Steel Tap and Die Set 51 Piece" - as they were open late and i needed them that evening.

Absolute rubbish - i coudl just about get the M6 tap to work - but the M12 was impossible.

So at the weekend i popped to Machine Mart and bought the following for £18:

Clarke CHT203 16-Pce Tap & Die Set
[www.machinemart.co.uk]

Brilliant - easy to use as the design is correct unlike the B&Q rubbish.

I know where I will be buying my tools from next time!

Rob

I bought my bolt-hobbing HSS tap from this site on eBay. Great if you're just looking for one specific part, rather than a complete set.
The taps in my cheap set just weren't up to it but this one worked perfectly.

Taps and dies

If you do buy a cheapie, get one in a reasonable case, then you can replace with quality as you need to.
I get Lyndon.

Mike

MMT