Unusual pipe tap

[Wardner]

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Are these pipe taps any good?

Don't understand how a tapered thread can work when every other thread is missing. I could accept the concept on a straight thread.

Hopefully, someone has used these and can comment.

 

[Anonymous-0]

It looks like a really ggod tap to me. Maybe made more for power threading and leaves more room for the chip? Dave

 

[Gun guru]

I have 1 of these. It works fine. If you look at the beginning of the tap (where it does the thread cutting) this is the part that makes the threads. The every other thread missing is I think for relieving the chips.

 

[Kevin Bismark]

Ridgid metalic electrical pipe has tapered threads. most likely what it was made for.

 

[Anonymous-0]

Skip taps like that one are commonly used for soft materials like aluminum, magnesium, tap faster, better chip clearance, as others have said.

 

[rubberwrench]

have used them and they work good

 

[Fred Martin]

It is as the guys say...used for soft stringy tapping where chips are a problem. But, if you look at the picture you will see that the next flute/teeth is right in the center of the skipped thread. ohfred

 

[Wardner]

I see what you mean by alternate teeth filling in the blank space of the preceding flute.

Are these taps suitable for steel?

 

[Paul from MI]

Interrupted thread pipe taps don't require as much torque to cut threads as conventional ones. Since a pipe tap is tapered it cuts on multiple threads therefore it pulls much harder than a stright thread tap which only cuts on a few threads at the end of the tap. Interrupted thread taps minimize this. I've used both, and for larger sizes the interrupted ones turn easier.

 

[Walt355]

See the UB printed on it? its a Union Butterfield brand tap. One of the best brand of taps there is

 

[RodinNS]

I've never used them but I understand that they're a speciality tap for things like aluminum that tend to chip. It's no doubt a good tap...

Rod

 

[Dick L]

We use them here in my mold shop for tool steel sometimes. A salesman dropped a couple off several years ago.
Both pipe and standard thread. I see several out in the shop. I used one a coupla weeks ago after drilling out a broken pipe out of a water bubblier. Worked! I didn't try a standard pipe tap. A standard tap would have worked also. Not sure if one is better than the other. We do very little in aluminum. Any aluminum that I taped I used a standard tap. I never seemed to have a chip problem. Probly because I back the tap up and keep it clean before getting into a problem.

 

[Dave_Id]

It's not unusual at all. I've been using in mold making for years. The skip tooth helps to keep from chipping. I have even made roughers and finishers by grinding the OD down some. Then the finish tap will take out the last of it. A finish tap will last a very long time this way. Great for use in P-20, H-13, and 320SS.

 

[Dick L]

You use any Vicount 44? Machines good and takes the heat treat step out of using H 13.

 

[Don-Wi]

Nothing unusual about it at all. We use them in our shop in anything from tool steels (V44, H13, S7, CruWear, 4140PH, A2, etc...) to aluminum and brass.

Never had any problems with that style vs. a conventional pipe tap.

Donovan from Wisconsin