Marking Taps & Material for Chuck Keys

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warmstrong1955
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Re: Marking Taps & Material for Chuck Keys

Post by warmstrong1955 »

SteveHGraham wrote:Warmstrong hacked it.
Like.....with a saw???

;)
Today's solutions are tomorrow's problems.
Russ Hanscom
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Re: Marking Taps & Material for Chuck Keys

Post by Russ Hanscom »

The video worked for me.
Patio
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Re: Marking Taps & Material for Chuck Keys

Post by Patio »

As far as marking your taps....... You might think about making or acquiring a box with separate bins in it. Sort all your taps by size and place in the bins.
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GlennW
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Re: Marking Taps & Material for Chuck Keys

Post by GlennW »

Russ Hanscom wrote:The video worked for me.
Did you use the link, or did you see the embedded video in the posts?

The embedded video is the one that isn't showing up for me.
Glenn

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SteveHGraham
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Re: Marking Taps & Material for Chuck Keys

Post by SteveHGraham »

I got myself a set of paint Sharpies and colored in the numbers on my 1/4" sockets. It came out very nice. When you add color, the numbers jump out at you. Unfortunately, I could not find colors I liked. I tried hot pink, but it started to get to me, so I changed to orange.

You color the numbers in and then wipe the excess off.
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SteveHGraham
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Re: Marking Taps & Material for Chuck Keys

Post by SteveHGraham »

Here's a photo of a socket I painted.
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05 13 17 SK socket with numbers painted with Sharpie small.jpg
Every hard-fried egg began life sunny-side up.
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BadDog
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Re: Marking Taps & Material for Chuck Keys

Post by BadDog »

Videos worked for me, all 3 of them.

I've seen the the tool marking done before but with paint pins like used to be used for tire lettering. And I had the same problems keeping up with tools when I worked in body shops. But I used a hand engraver to mark mine. Some of the guys would not have been above dropping them in a can of readily available paint thinner and claiming it for themselves. Particularly the Mac/Snap-on stuff. But for me even now, this got me thinking of using different colors for different sizes. I use organizers in the box, so putting my hand on what I need is no problem. But when under a car, or using a tray under the hood, or whatever, being able to crane my neck over and spot that red half inch when I can't get a good angle (or light) to focus on the numbers would be pretty sweet. Something more like a band might be better, but all color coded like the torque bar sets.

For taps, I've got just about all the standard taps from 80 up to 5/8, and significant taps above that, with a few metric that I've needed from time to time (mostly for my Kubota). I have them in one of the shallow drawers of my NuEra (like Lista/Vidmar) cabinet. It came with slotted ribs that could be placed in a sort of grid of holes spaced every half inch or so. Also had green felt in the bottom. Anyway, I arranged them at appropriate spacing for the taps, and made/used separators of a matching length. There were MANY of these already in the cabinet when I bought it, with LOTS of the little clip on name tabs sorta like hanging folder tabs. These have the size and pitch on each one. Most have more than 3 or 4 (spiral point, helix, bottom, 4 flute hand, etc) so they lay on the felt alternated back-forth so the flutes never touch. Very convenient to just find the pocket with the thread I need, select the style based on the hole, and get-er-done. I can't imagine a better way other than if you incorporated a sort of corrugated substrate to keep them better separated. Nobody but me uses the cabinet, and I know not to toss them in or slam the drawer, so it has worked very well.
Russ
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SteveHGraham
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Re: Marking Taps & Material for Chuck Keys

Post by SteveHGraham »

I think my tap issues may be due to the curse of blow-molded cases. These cases have a nice custom look to them, but they waste space and don't always hold things in place. My drill indexes probably hold twice as many parts as my tap and die case, but they take up a third as much room, and nothing moves around in them.
Every hard-fried egg began life sunny-side up.
Inspector
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Re: Marking Taps & Material for Chuck Keys

Post by Inspector »

For the small taps. Drill and thread a piece of plastic and engrave the size on it. Screw the tap in in with some grease on it and put it in the drawer. Protected and identified.

It is a lot easier though if you just buy some plastic tubes and write on the outside of them with a marker. Like these.
https://www.uline.ca/BL_3651/Clear-Plastic-Tubes
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