Mibro301360BLUE (26-Piece) Titanium Nitride Coated Tap, Die, and Drill Set, Imperial Measurements, For Use On Appliances, Machines, and Automotive Car Parts

Worthless for real threading... but ok for a backup or thread chasing. forget tapping new threads into anything other than mild steel sheet metal, and even then its a challenge. I bought this set to augment a collection of better taps just in case one went missing or I needed to chase some threads. If I did it again I would go for a better set.

A cool knife, not a hot one. It cuts clean taps in aluminum with a bit of patience and work. Be sure to use a vise to hold your work as you tap.I found the trick in tapping is to tap the hole straight on. I suppose with practice I'll get the hang of it, but perhaps this set  Irwin Industrial Tools 4935352 SAE Alignment Taps 4 to 1/2-Inch with NC and NF Thread Pitches  would be easier to work with. But that was out of my price range for what I'm doing.....Be sure to buy the right kind of lubricant when tapping, and take it slow. 3/4 turn forward and 1/2 turn back to knock off the bits of metal that have been cut.

Now that I've owned and used this for awhile I've discovered that while the the smaller sizes below 1/4 are OK, the sizes from 1/4 and up are not the thread sizes marked. I am guessing they are a close metric equivalent merely stamped to have the SAE size. This to me is a deal breaker, at the price I never expected the set to cut #9 hardened steel, but needed a set to clean and re-thread existing bolts and threaded casings, and I did find this set good enough for that, in the small sizes. However, the inaccurate cutting in the larger sizes makes the set worse than useless, as it is possible to damage otherwise workable bolts and threaded connectors with it. I have dropped this from two stars to one and changed title from "OK for the price" to WORTHLESS. I think cheap tools have their place for occasional use, but tools which actually lie about what size they fit are truly garbage. I wish now I had never wasted my money on it, and will be looking for a higher priced, made in the USA, accurately sized set to replace it.Previous Review:I needed a set for occasionally re-tapping a cross-threaded nut or bolt or de-burring screws and nuts. From the looks of it, that's all I got here.It contains 8 standard bolt sizes (not 4 metric and 4 imperial as stated in another review), but they are all small, less than 1/2 inch.The tour starts when you open the case and everything falls out. Nothing snaps in, you must hold flat and upright at all times or the tools come tumbling out.The size stamping on the dies are OK, on the drills a bit hard to read, on the taps impossible to read.The tee handle for the dies holds them off center and the handle for the taps barely holds them at all.I haven't tried to thread anything with it yet, but I am concerned that even the manufacturer says they are only made from high strength metal, not premium grade #9 steel as they should be. They don't feel heavy enough to be high density #9 steel, which may explain why others here have had difficulty cutting with them.They are probably good enough for my purposes, but my expectations were already set low, and I still find this set disappointing. It does not appear to be a good value. I will add more when I get a chance to actually use them.I have now had a chance to use these and they are not even as passable as I originally thought. I had to knock a burr off a set screw, a simple easy job that I purchased the set for, and the die slightly re-threaded the screw OUT of SAE standard. The threading on the is not true, it's a few degrees off standard. I retried the operation with another small bolt I carefully checked with an SAE thread gauge first, and as expected, the bolt came from the factory perfect, no light between the bolt and the gauge, but after running it through one of the dies in this set, it was just ever so slightly out of alignment, just a slight amount of light showing under the gauge. It's a small and acceptable variation, but you expect a tool to be trued for the one and only job it's supposed to do.Also, the die had trouble cutting the burr off a setscrew. It should have gone through it like a hot knife through butter. This confirms my previous opinion that this set is OK (barely) for plastics, aluminum and very thin sheet steel stock, but I would never use it on something like an engine block.

This is actually a really nice set. I used it to mount a base plate on my circular saw. The best part about it is that it comes with the twist bits that match the taps. Makes drilling and tapping a hole really easy.The set seems to be made very well. Would I tap an engine block with it? No, but for everything short of that, it should do fine. The case could hold things a bit better, but all the pieces are clearly marked with size info, so even after the plastic insert wears out, it should be OK. Overall, great price for a good set to keep around.

The case on this set is very nice, does not match the picture, but is sturdy and a great place to store your SAE Taps, Dies and drills.However, the first item we attempted to use the 1/4 inch die on, a .25 rod that was specified in our Machinists Handbook (Industrial Press Inc.) just would not start. At first we thought, it must be us, looking at the die it did not have a very tapered input to the die, making it not easy to start. We reduced the size of the rod cutting it smaller and smaller and smaller again, till we could even get the die to start. This just did not make sense.We ordered two other 1/4 inch dies from Amazon, different manufactures, both started and threaded the same rod without having to cut it down. The issue is clearly with this set. My guess is it is not SAE, and is metric but close, or just not manufactured correctly.We did try one of the taps, it did work with the drill, though be aware the drill is short. Plus we were tapping plastic, not steel.Yes we ordered and used Forney Cutting Fluid at that same time, that was not the issue.

So far I've only used the 5/8 drill and tap and it worked fine. Seems like a good household set for the price. I'm not doing any heavy work so this set should be perfect. I used it to drill and tap a hole in a piece of black pipe.

This is NOT what I would call a machinist's dream. But for occasional use they work. A coupla of precautions though. GO SLOW! and ALWAYS use oil, even on Aluminum. Works on steel but I did NOT try these on stainless.