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There are a lot of highly specialized tools out there. Tap and dies are one of these. You use tap and dies to make it possible to cut a thread on blank stocks as well as in holes. These then accommodated bolts and screw. Generally, these sets have taps and dies that come in all the screw sizes we come across in our day-to-day life. They also have wrenches to make it possible for someone to actually turn the tap and the die.
The tap itself is a metal rod. This looks a lot like a drill bit, but it has a cutting edge inside the rod itself. This allows the female threads to form underneath the surface. The die on the other hand is a circular piece of metal that has a hole in the center. The sides of the hole also have a cutting edge to enable them to form male threads on to blank rods or screws. Different sets exist, with threads cut into them made from plastics, metals or woods.
They design the female threads to accept screws. In order to do this, you drill a very shallow pilot hole into them. In the case of tapping hard materials, the hole drilled is actually a bit smaller than the tap's diameter. This hole goes to the depth of the screw itself. Tap and dies sets generally come with gage blocks to make sure the measurements in terms of depth are accurately measured. Once placed the tap is able to turn. The cutting edge then bores into the hole, which forms the real thread. If you need a very large hole, the first hole is often made with a small tap. Then you can make the hole increasingly wider with bigger taps.
Now you know how to make female threads, you will also want to know how to make male threads. You do this by using a die that has threads that match the tap. These are then placed in gage blocks to measure the right distances again. Then place a blank screw or a rod into the die, which is then turned until the right amount of threads is cut into the outside of the screw or rod. You can now screw this piece into the hole that you created with the tap.
Tap and dies are often used in industrial and commercial settings. Here, you can use power tools, but they work exactly the same as a hand-operated set. In this case, you insert a tap into a power drill or drill press and place a die into a spinning tool such as a lathe. There are even some highly complex machines that are able to take more than one tap and die at the same time. These are mainly used in factories.
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