what size tap??

Going shopping later and intend to buy a tap and die set.I am playing around with shortening several cheap lights and plan to thread the insides of the cut down sections.My question is can many of these minor mods be performed with a basic tap and die set?I can not buy nor do I know how to use a lathe and thought this would be a way for me to kill a little time with some modding.Can anyone tell me what size the more popular tap sizes are for the basic lights.I am mainly playing with AAA and AA size hosts.I also like the idea of cutting down a mini mag but know little of the sizes nor threads.Anyone know what size the mini mag takes for threads?Harbor freight has a 40 pc. set for 12 dollars but the sizes are mostly small and do not appear to have the larger pieces needed for my needs.The next step up costs almost 90 dollars and has many larger sizes.If I could get an idea of what popular sizes I need I thought I could buy them seperate.I would hate to buy the entire kit and only use one item.Thanks for any help

The mini mag is 5/8 28tpi. I think the surefire E series/mclux is 11/16 20tpi. These are both really hard to find as taps. The problem is for the larger bores, they tend to use coarse threads

a lot of the time, the light will need to be bored out a bit before it can be internally threaded
as unnerv said, the minimag/kroll threads are 5/8-28. unfortunately, you'll need to bore it out a little bit before tapping /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/frown.gif

as far as the e-series/mclux/ arc threads, it is 13/16-20. if i recall correctly, the eseries tailcap is 11/16-20, but i'm not known for my memory /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/tongue.gif
anyway you won't be able to shorten and rethread an e2e anyway, so it's no big deal /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

Now that I think about it, I think your right Roth, my bad. Since I single point all the big stuff, I usually just mic the existing parts before I cut it off and then bore to the same size before single pointing the thread.

i do that when i absolutely have to /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/icon15.gif

Try:

http://www.travers.com

for large and specialty taps. Also,

http://www.kbctools.com

is good.

$15.00/each usually and they can order other special taps. I tend to just buy the sizes I need rather than whole sets.

Travers seems to have the best values on large unussual taps and drills. I bought a Tap & Die set over fifty years ago, some have never had the cosmoline cleaned off, the rest replaced a few times over. I remember my Grandfather's set from a over a hundered years ago was the same way..

Real newbie question here: Are these tap and dies used as hand tools, or are they used in something like a machine press?

Hey guys,

Another tap question. What size and pitch are the threads on the tail end of the C cell m@g body.

Here's a related thread.

can helicoil be used after a bore instead of a tap? or are the lights too thin or what?

Thanks darkzero.

With all of these taps and dies, I won't need to master threading. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

[ QUOTE ]
Justintoxicated said:
can helicoil be used after a bore instead of a tap? or are the lights too thin or what?

[/ QUOTE ]

Yes the walls would be too thin cause you'll still need to tap thread in order to insert the heli-coil. Also I don't think you'll find sizes in heli-coil for these, especially for any of the Mag threads. They're pretty much special sized threads not used in common SAE, Metric, or British nuts & bolts.