Home / Products / Internal Thread Cutting / Machine Taps

What is machine tap?

Generally we are accustomed to call the high speed steel grinding taps with high manufacturing accuracy as machine taps. In fact, the working principle of machine taps and hand taps is basically the same.


What are machine taps used for?

Machine taps are high speed steel taps for tapping on machine tools to make threads.


What is the difference between a machine tap and a hand tap?

Machine and hand taps are the standard taps for cutting common threads.

A machine tap is a single tap, usually made of high speed steel, without a square end, and is cut by a machine tool.

Hand taps are usually two or three taps, usually made of alloy or carbon steel and tool steel with a square end, and are cut with a special wrench. These two can be used interchangeably in the production process, but individual cases are not possible, as follows:

  • If there are processing quality and hardness requirements, it is best to use the machine taps.

  • If the tapping is below M2, it is better to choose the hand tap with good material. When tapping with machine taps, the cutting volume is large, plus if the material toughness is large, it is easy to twist off the taps, while using manual taps is the second time to finish tapping, and each time the cutting volume is relatively small and tapping accuracy is high, so it is better to use manual taps.


For thread making tools you have any questions please contact us. GSR is a professional machine taps manufacturer.

Read More