Tools I would like to have

A few ideas for the tool industry, to make my toolkit more useful:

1. Socket spanners to fit the square ends of taps.
This would enable me to use my extensions, ratchets, etc to get into awkward places.

2. Hacksaw blades with teeth for wood - ideally on the Japanese pull-saw pattern.
This would mean that a travelling toolkit would need only an extra blade or two, not a complete saw.

3. A BA thread gauge, to check the TPI of mystery fasteners.
Nothing in the Whitworth, Unified or Metric gauges will match, usually

Anyone got other ideas?

Regards, Tim

Tim

I have a set of square sockets just for taps

not easy in this country but on ebay in usa

actually they are now

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/LASER-6058-TAP-SOCKET-SET-HOLDER-MAGNETIC-SQUARE-SOCKETS-IDEAL-FOR-TIGHT-SPACES-/361347529245?hash=item5421fdba1d:g:92EAAOSwu4BVsO7l

Junior hacksaw blades are available with tooth form suitable for wood not seen 12 " ones though

Surely easy to make a thread plate for ba threads to test unknowns

Edited By Ian Parkin on 24/10/2016 10:23:03

1. I would usually disagree with this suggestion because it could encourage a bad habit of applying too much force unevenly (which could cause a breakage). However i too have had trouble getting into awkward places where i need a tap wrench but not the space to turn it. (i have a long reach tap wrench from arc which you may find a useful purchase)

2. Generally speaking you can get away with a 24 tpi blade for brass/copper to use on wood. I actually find a hacksaw easier to use on things like mdf rather than a woodsaw. 

3. I thought BA was like a "pre metric scale" in preparation for decimalization? So long as you could identify the pitch there would be no need to have a special threadform gauge.

Any other ideas would be some long handled spanners so i can stop hitting my hand on the side of the mill when i undo the taper on the drawbar of my mill!

Michael W

Edited By Michael Walters on 24/10/2016 10:44:09

I have a 1/4 inch socket set, only cheap, but it does the job. Checking just now, a 3/16 inch socket fits a 2BA tap. My metric set is in the garage, or I would check further, and I am not suitably attired to go outside, people would talk...

Geoff

8 piece sets available as:

• Laser part number 6058 on UK Ebay for around £18.00
• Snap-On / Blue Point part number TDL8 for around £70.00

Regarding a BA thread gauge, Michael Walters says:

So long as you could identify the pitch there would be no need to have a special threadform gauge.

Exactly, but how do I identify the pitch? If I had a full set of BA taps I could make a set of gauges, but indeed, if I had a set of taps I wouldn't need the gauges, would I?

BA is indeed a 'metric' thread but it is unique in having pitches, in millimetres:

1, 0.9, 0.81, 0.73, 0.66, 0.59, 0.53, 0.48, 0.43 and so on. Only the first (0BA) is common with a metric series.

Cheers, Tim

All the suggestions could of course be made by yourself though a saw blade is a bit tedious. Perhaps welding suitable ends onto a bit of bandsaw blade would do. I've not seen a junior hacksaw wood blade - could you be meaning a coping saw blade?
I have a nice little 1/4 in socket set that has BA, AF, and Metric so can usually find one to fit a square.

I have made one spanner with the hex cranked to half the usual angle for a particularly awkward nut with no clearance for a socket either. (the one underneath the Boxford head) I wonder if a fully variable design is possible without being bulky.

A BA pitch gauge could be easily moulded in plastic - It would make a nice publicity giveaway for some company at the next MEX.

snap on tools make tapping chucks (available in the UK)which hold the the square end of a tap securely over a range of sizes and have a normal square drive socket at the other end ,I have two sizes and only use occasionally but can be very useful,I made an adapter for the larger one using the taper shank of an old 3mt drill so that I could hold taps in the tailstock of my lathe without the taps slipping as they do when holding them in jacobs chuck.

.

They were available, Tim

**LINK**

http://www.mqs.co.uk/moore-wright-798-moore-wright-screw-pitch-gauges-type-ba-british-association-number-of-blades-12-threads-per-inch-0ba-1ba-2ba-3ba-4ba-5ba-6ba-7ba-8ba-9ba-10ba-type-47-5-degrees.html

But so were a lot of things ...

MichaelG.

Hi there, Tim,

I'll pass on your items #1 & #2 but for item #3 you need Moore & Wright Screw Pitch Gauge, No. 798, British Association. It has leaves from 0 BA down to 10 BA plus a grinding gauge for 47½°.

I bought mine many years ago and it might since have been 'rationalised' out of the product range of whoever owns M&W this week! But there must be a few about on the second-hand market. One man's 'obsolete' is another man's 'comes in handy'!!!

Best regards,

Swarf, Mostly!

Tim I recently bought 12 in Hacksaw blades for wood Similar teeth to a bow saw Sorry I can't remember where but they are out there

Possibly Aldi? They were recently selling a hacksaw frame with 3 blades, 18 & 24 tpi for metal plus a 4 tpi that was very like a small bow saw blade. Haven't seen the blades separately yet, but out there somewhere.

Chronos seem to be doing a BA screw pitch gauge:

http://www.chronos.ltd.uk/acatalog/info-SPBA.html

Regards

David

A hacksaw with a 90 degree bend for working in corners.

A left handed screwdriver for those awkward screws that go the wrong way.

Putting on tool.

Inverted lathe that allows trouble-free parting off from the front.

Extra large centre punch to make sure the dot covers the right place.

Fluteless drill for materials that grab.

Optivisor for short-sighted people that makes things look further away.

A set of GO - NO GO - OH GO ON THAT WILL DO gauges.

Neil

Hi Neil,

Like you, i am short sighted as well and find it annoying when it comes to saftey goggles, as it often means i need two sets of headgear as opposed to one. I did have some "prescription saftey glasses" made up for me at an old co. i used to work for. But i lost them somehow, so now i have to make do with looking like a scuba diver.

There is a company that does them if you can provide the data on your focal requirements. I usually ask for this after a check up at the opticians, might be time to go and get one anyway!

Can you describe this "putting on tool"? I'm thinking of something that holds screws for you but maybe i'm on the wrong track?

Michael W

Edited By Michael Walters on 24/10/2016 16:51:12

Michael a putting on tool will replace metal you have removed by mistake, Neil needs one more than most

oh!.. I'm not quite with it with the jokes sometimes!..

Michael W

Ian, the nearest I have seen to the saw blade you desire are the Turbocut framesaw blades, unfortunately 400mm is the shortest I know of but it would not be impossible to grind a bit off and add a suitable hole. Thes e are meant to go in the traditional european framesaws but can't see why they would not work in a hacksaw.

"A putting on tool will replace metal you have removed by mistake, Neil needs one more than most"

So that explains why Southam started off as a 7 1/4" gauge design, and ended up 3 1/2" gauge!...

Jason, Neil isn't the only one that might need a "putting on tool", I often wish I had one. I guess my excuse is that I'm much older.

Thor