Has anyone any experience of HQSS tools – notably taps and dies?

[JulieParticipant @julie]

Hi,

Has anyone any experience of HQSS tools – notably taps and dies?

I am familiar with HSS, but not this material, I cannot find anything other than very evasive details of what it is.

The only one commonly stated property is that it is 30% tougher than HSS, however without reference to other characteristics this is meaningless!

If I assume it has the same strength as HSS, then it is just saying it is less brittle (higher strain failure) than HSS, if this occurs after the yield point that isn’t much use for a Tap!

I rarely break taps, so it is hardness and wear characteristics that I am more interested in

 

 

Julie

 

 

Edited as it missed the last two lines off! – ?

Edited By Julie on 13/02/2010 14:15:15

[JulieParticipant @julie]

[KWILParticipant @kwil]

HQSS are made by a British Company Tap & Die http://www.tapdie.com, branded Totem, at least you can talk to them if you have any trouble which is more than some overeseas made products of doubtful origin. They can tap Stainless so I guess they are not only hard but wear resistant.

Edited By KWIL on 13/02/2010 16:23:57

Edited By KWIL on 13/02/2010 16:24:15

[John Stevenson 1Participant @johnstevenson1]

I did the same search a while ago and wondered if it’s that good why aren’t other companies using it ?

 

Cross referencing prices I can buy branded from J&L cheaper, in some cases a lot cheaper.

 

John S.

[JulieParticipant @julie]

Thanks all,

 

Given the very limited experience of HQSS here, I guess I will stick to HSS!

 

I had thought HQSS was just some marketing ploy to make it appear better than CS (and HSS if you took the advertising at face value), but wanted to check.

 

BTW I thought Totem  was manufactured in India (The collaboration with the UK was over 30 years ago) – although I know Tap and Die were one of the original collaborators, and remain one of the companies who distribute in the UK.

 

Julie

[Frank DolmanParticipant @frankdolman72357]

     Just for fun, I Googled Totem and  found an unequivocal assurance

   that the wooden boxes in which sets of taps are supplied, are designed

   and made in UK.  No such assurance is given about the tools however

   so my assumption is that they are foreign.  Seems likely that Julie is

   right about India.  There was nothing about a distinction between HQS

   and HSS that I saw.   All very funny.

[John Stevenson 1Participant @johnstevenson1]

If you do a search on HQSS only this company refer to it.

 

I could find no reference to it anywhere else which make me very suspicious that a small import company has access to something that none of the high end companies has or needs to invent.

 

John S.

[Keith Wood 1Participant @keithwood1]

I have purchased taps and dies from tapdie.com for years.

 

They provide a good product (equivalent to HSS) at a good price and the service is allways top notch.

 

If you look at the taps, the quality of the machining is very good, generous root radii and good ident stamping.

 

Recently I had the unfortunate experience to snap one of my HQSS taps (8BA) in a bronze cylinder (rushing as usual), I had also broken a HSS drill in an adjacent hole.

 

I used the heated ALUM trick, it took around 4 shours of simmering on the stove to dissolve the HSS drill and roughly double the time to dissolve the tap.

 

I would recommend the products.

 

Keith W.

Montreal

Canada

 

 

[Keith Wood 1Participant @keithwood1]

I have purchased taps and dies from tapdie.com for years.

 

They provide a good product (equivalent to HSS) at a good price and the service is allways top notch.

 

If you look at the taps, the quality of the machining is very good, generous root radii and good ident stamping.

 

Recently I had the unfortunate experience to snap one of my HQSS taps (8BA) in a bronze cylinder (rushing as usual), I had also broken a HSS drill in an adjacent hole.

 

I used the heated ALUM trick, it took around 4 shours of simmering on the stove to dissolve the HSS drill and roughly double the time to dissolve the tap.

 

I would recommend the products.

 

Keith W.

Montreal

Canada

 

 

[Speedy Builder5Participant @speedybuilder5]

I don’t know where you would get them,  but when I was an apprentice,  we had taps and drills ‘nitrided’ when we worked on stainless steel,  and if a coolant was required,  we used ordinary water.

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