So let me start with saying I鈥檓 a mechanic by trade I spent my career as an electrical technician for a company in the manufacturing sector of emergency service first response vehicles until I broke my back in a near fatal car accident left me with a crippling spinal cord injury so now I wrench for myself and for the love of building and fixing my main focus outside of work and even school was always centred around small gas but specifically motorcycles service repair and customization and my specific area of expertise is regarding air cooled American V-twin pushrod engines based around the later models of Harley Davidson the Evolution and Twin-Cam sportspersons and big twins are where 85% of my time tinkering is spent and anyone who鈥檚 familiar with them know that 90% of the engines are held together with 3/16 hex and T27 torx bolts in aluminum cases with blind holes and the bolts/screws whatever you prefer call them are steel and come brand new from the factory with thread sealer already installed so over time the buildup of oxidation via the electrolysis process of the two dissimilar metals being in contact with each other as well as the leftover 鈥渓ocktite鈥 weather from the original installation or from subsequent removals and reinstallationysing fresh locktite type compounds along with any dirt debris grease and oil that may find its way into the threads can make torque specs wildly inaccurate can cause binding and risk stripping the extremely soft threads of the aluminum cases and worst case scenario and often overlooked possibility Is for oils to make their way into the blind holes and upon reinstalling the cases and torquing bolts to spec the possibility of having that liquid hydro lock the bolts and if the threads in the aluminum are in really good shape instead of the force tearing out the threads and popping out the bolt what will happen is suddenly the back end of that case will prove to be the weak point in the chain and your blind hole will suddenly and abruptly no longer be a blind hole bursting out the back part and depending on what your working on your very lovely engine will be nothing but a pretty lawn ornament when I first started I took the bolts I used the most and made my own thread chaser by putting a notch about halfway up the length essentially a channel to guide any liquids amd dirt and anything else clogging up the threads somewhere safe to go and run that to the bottom and back out with an in out in out type motion reminiscent of how you would use a tap and die set to brake the chip when making threads I never ever recommend or use real thread cutting taps or dies for that because especially with aluminum and the average person having a broad spectrum tap and die set with dual purpose dies and taps or having starting taps and dies means that there鈥檚 a wide ramp on them that tapers out to full depth so starting threads is easier etc problem is 99% of the time you will cross thread the first turn or two of threads in a hole and that鈥檚 all you need to repair to get back on track run your average hardware store tap and dies through that and you鈥檒l quickly find yourself halfway down and complete cross threading your work and using an old bolt is ok but it is possible to have that. Brake in the process when it binds it鈥檚 also labour intensive to make a thread chaser that way and have it work properly so last year I decided to get a set I went for a Chinese brand that offered the absolute best band for my buck knowimg I do work on my two late model GMC vehicles my Sierra 1509 and my wife鈥檚 Terrain I wanted something to do SAE as well as metric and the thread files for wheel studs and such was a consideration the set I got was a 61 piece set and the issue I鈥檝e had with them has been that the heat treatment is spotty at best many are soft enough that they actually deformed while trying to chase threads in a set of Chinese budget motorcycle mirror adapters the poorly formed threads of int specific piece actually deformed my thread restoration /chasing tap and one of my UNF dies (they are olour coated national fine is black national coarse is silver and metric is gold) stamped as such and coloured as such was actually threaded for the UNC thread and of course it has to be the largest of the set so sunning a proper thread Tap and re cutting it to fit was out of the question as I don鈥檛 have anything even close to the right size and the thread restoration Tap in that set wasn鈥檛 even close to capable of handling that task it鈥檚 a good all around set for the price that was but it wasn鈥檛 the smoothest or the most confidence inspiring of tools to use so I have been revisiting the thought of getting the Lang branded sets knowing that they are the OEM for the major tool truck brands for a tenth the cost of the tool truck. Branded version I could get the identical set still made in USA and realistically for the price it鈥檚 not that much more than the price of the biggger branded import options available recently I came across the this SAE set that aside from omitting the 2 largest taps had the exact same parts as my un-named 61 piece Chinese set does in the SAE section and the fact that the slang set was on sale and the SAE thread chaser taps and dies are the bill of what I use as the majority of metric work I鈥檇 use this type of tool for its the thread files I use first and foremost and all I have to say is WOW! I wish I would鈥檝e just spent the extra 25$ plus tax in the beginning and bought the lang master set sure it doesn鈥檛 have all the extra thread files or the 4-6 different metric thread pitches that the Chinese set offered but it鈥檚 equipped with everything the average person is going to find themselves needing and leaves enough room to purchase any taps dies or thread files that aren鈥檛 covered by that particular set individually in the event that you find yourself needing a specific size that isn鈥檛 included but back to this specific SAE set I can鈥檛 get over how well made they are they鈥檙e smooth as butter and the only thing is because my barn is off grid I treat all my tools with a coating of red rust check to prevent corrosion if the metals and in this case the black manganese phosphate finish in the UNF taps and dies was on the softer side and extra thick and after being lightly lubricated with red rust check it led to the finish rubbing off to a point itching dramatic it makes them look like they鈥檝e been well loved and used but not abused nothing major just something to note also tended to stain my fingers black while using them otherwise it seems to have been a problem just at the beginning and they no longer shed any of that protective finish so not really even worth losing any points over I am absolutely shocked by how amazingly well these thread chasers/restorers work they do the thing better than I could have ever expected and they do it well what more could I ever expect from a tool especially one that鈥檚 as high quality and American made as these tools are at the price point they are a serious Win in my books!