No, the title of this post isn’t the moral of a fringe fundamentalist group. It’s about a shop technique which allows you to thread blind rod and turn it into a bolt, or drill a hole and cut threads in it so that you can insert a bolt or threaded rod. It’s a very cool and empowering process.

You can get a full tap and die set or you can buy components; items that you need as you need them. The latter is the direction I took. Not having every size when you need or want it could be inconvenient. On the other hand, only buying what you need helps keep your kit to a manageable size.

I always use cutting fluid, wax, or some type of lubricant with any cutting tool. Tap and die cutting tools are no different. It’s also good to keep brushing the chips out of the cutting teeth. I use an old toothbrush for this purpose.

I needed to be able to control the alignment of some LED lasers for a project (http://www.afishstory.com) created with fellow ITP classmate, Vitor Freire.