I mentally kicked myself up the backside and got the sand pipes installed a couple of days ago so yesterday I took a break and made up another couple of Joe Pie inspired tools, which he shows in use in one of his videos.

These were an additional tap spinner which has an aluminium knurled grip but a steel inner so it shouldn’t wear with use. I also made a depth stop to fit over the tap if I wish to only tap a hole to a specific depth.

The two fit together as above, or you can use them independently as below.

In the video, Joe showed that he made his in pairs. This is so that he could have a taper tap in one and a bottom tap in the other. Having made the initial example, I still had a bit of material left so I decided to see if I could make a combined tap spinner and depth stop.

It turns out I could, in the image below you can see the steel core inside the aluminium grip.

Just in case you are wonder what I used to make them I used the remains of one of the handles on the scarp die holder. I put it in the lathe and carefully parted the aluminium where I thought the steel roughly ended (as it happens I could have gone a little further) then having noted how securely the aluminium was attached to the steel core I realised that I could turn the remains of the casting attached to the bar into a round usable piece to make something from and the idea was born. I also have the other side to do something similar from. I can see more tools for even finer taps in the future. Unless I think of another tool to make instead.