Member postings for Anthony Gibson

what a response, i was not expecting so many so soon.

So consensus is its a manufacturing thing, possibly useful for machine holding (manufacture of the tap and in use).

Nobody has said that its a sign of cheap (or good quality) taps, it is what it is and in use a cone spring centre works just as well.

My curiosity was around why its there, is it a good thing or a bad thing, advantage or disadvantage..

All your comments have been really useful, thank you,

if we don't ask questions we don't learn things

Hopefully somebody might know, a Google search is a little fruitless on this subject as the results are bloated with descriptions of the cutting end not the 'holding' end.

So i fully understand why taps have a centre hole (enables use of spring centre), but whats with the pointy end version?

Some tap sets I see and own, have a pointed end at the non-cutting end. now it could be that a different type of spring centre could be used. The pointy ends seem to always be on the smaller size of taps so maybe drilling a centre hole is too hard and so the inverse is used and the spring centre is female rather than male.

Or it is something else. I am just curious and its a slow morning at work...

Viacad from Punchcad. various versions, 2d only, 2d/3d and Pro. I have the 2d/3d version. Quite intuitive and reasonably priced IMHO.

What attracted me to it was the fact it comes in PC and MAC versions, so my dad and i can share drawings for when he gets our 3d printer working!!!!

they also have a power pack add-on for 3d-printing but i have not played with this yet but it purports to 'fix' your drawing before you print it (fill in the meshes etc)

I have also started to look at iPad apps for quick drawings. Concept looks best so far with and without stylus support