Tool Talk
What's-It Forum => What's-It Forum => Topic started by: acl76 on December 02, 2014, 10:52:45 PM
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Can anyone help me identify this set of tools?
There is an image of the label. It says Butterfield and 'General Purpose Screw Plate'. It also lists the sizes of each piece but some of it is illegible.
It contains 42 pieces which is in the other image.
Thanks for any information.
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That is a general purpose tap and die set.
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UNC and UNF are American thread standards - Unified National Coarse and Fine (the US equivalent of BSW and BSF in the UK) - the main differences are the thread angles (60o in the US and 55o in the UK)..
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Thanks for the replies.
I tried looking up the company 'Butterfield' but only came across Union-Butterfield. Any relation?
Would these still be useful to someone if I tried to sell them? I'm afraid I don't have much use for them myself.
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They are still useful an would work.
Personally if I was to see it at a garage sale I would just keep walking. It's not of high quality or special. Surely someone might pay twenty bucks but it's not me.
Good luck
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I cannot tell from the pictures, but the older US made Butterfield tools were pretty good quality.
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They are still useful an would work.
Personally if I was to see it at a garage sale I would just keep walking. It's not of high quality or special. Surely someone might pay twenty bucks but it's not me. Good luck
I dunno. Middle aged Butterfield was pretty darn good stuff.
And this set looks complete and hardly used.
Worth $100 if you need it and a steal at $20.
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I have found no older tap compares to the quality of a new brand name tap. Lots of taps may have been good in the day they were made but nowadays taps are held to a different standard. I don't know much about metallurgy but maybe someone who does can explain how metals an its properties have changed along with heat treating processes.
These taps would still surely work. I am just looking at the life of the tool.
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I hope if you sell them you get the most you can. Maybe I am wrong an 100 isn't unreasnonble.
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Yes it was Union Butterfield, makers of cutting tools. and yes, they made some good sets in their day.
they were; Union Butterfield, 134 Chestnut Hill Ave. Athol, Massachusetts.
Athol was a busy tool town not too far from Greenfield, which many of you have heard of in the
tool trades. also Millers Falls. and not too far from Springfiels or Worcester.
there were many tool companies in this area. mostly gone today.
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I don't know when Litton bought Butterfield but the zip code means it was after the early 1960's.
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I buy those different tap and die sets whenever I come across them, unless the pricemis outrageous or the box is really messed up.
My first day as an apprentice started with intrductions to my foreman, and the first two things he said to me were "Can you fight?" followed by "Have you ever ran a threader?"
After that first few moments I spent most of the rest of the day cutting threads.
Chilly
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Chilly,
Just curious...
What did you apprentice in?
Aren't you currently in systems?
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The safety glasses warning sticker makes it about 1970 or newer IMHO.
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Union Butterfield tap & dies are made by Precision Dormer LLC which started in Sheffield, England
around 1913, they have more than one plant, one is in Hebron, KY.
it looks like they have an office in Elgin, IL
Dormer is a subsidiary of the Swedish machine tool giant Sandvik's Precision Twist Drill unit.
Union Butterfield sells its products through a network of sales offices throughout the
United States and Canada and other didtributors. they join Precision Twist and Dormer as the primary
North American brand names for Sandvik's drills & bits.
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Are the taps or the dies engraved HSS - if High Speed Steel this will be a good usable set - if not they are probably only carbon steel - less durable and fairly quick to blunt... The former is used on professional tool for long life and heavy usage, the latter for home /DIY/occasional use... Dormer and Presto were the top two UK makers of taps and dies.
For information, HSS is an alloy steel, containing tungsten first created by Mushet in Sheffield in 1868 (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mushet_steel) - since then its formula has been frequently improved. It is a self hardening steel, that doesn't need quenching, and will continue to cut for a while even when approaching red heat (on a lathe or drill).
(High) carbon steels are those containing 0.8 to 1.2% carbon - they can be hardened, and if not tempered remain very hard, but brittle - for taps and dies they are in this state - so cut well, but soon blunt and will easily break if over-stressed... More recently this quality of tool is made in other (non HSS) alloy steels to improve toughness and wear resistance - they are heat treated to obtain a good balance between hardness, durabilty and toughness.....
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Chilly,
Just curious...
What did you apprentice in?
Aren't you currently in systems?
Fire protection - apprenticed as a sprinkler fitter, by the time I became a journeyman I was mostly in the office. Kept my card and collective bargaining benefits until unrestricted benefits at 15 yrs. Switched to corporate benefits after that but I still pay dues and maintain active status though.
Been designing and sellimg for 27 of my 32 yrs in so far. In the last 10 yrs or so I have been designing alarm & detection, also. Certificates in most special hazards, I've been doing those since I started in 1982.
It's been a great trade for me.
Chilly