"Name" wrote in message
news:HNiDf.742280$_o.343436@attbi_s71...
Are hex dies just for fixing threads and round dies are for actually
making
threads??

Thanks!





"Robert Swinney" wrote in message
. ..
Some, but not all, hex-shaped dies are intended for thread repair only.
Maybe at one time the hex shape indicated a re-threading die, but that is
not always the case now. Craftsman, for one, distributes general-purpose
dies that are hex-shaped.

Bob Swinney

Hi. Thanks. I have a few Craftsman dies that I used to clean up threads,
but I thought they were to make threads. I have never needed to make any
threads yet. I also have a $10 Harbor Freight set that has round dies, but
the place where the round rod would enter the die is not tapered like the
Craftsman ones, and I don't see how anyone could use them to make threads
that way.

The main thing that got me started to wonder about it was what I read on the
McMaster-Carr site about the round vs. hex.

Thanks!