I just got The tap today. Looks good, really sharp, and the pilot is indeed fluted. First thing I noticed was the shank diameter was quite a bit smaller then most of My other taps. I have'nt tried It out yet, But It looks like it should work well, just have to play with some scrap to figure out the best bore size to use with It.
Edit, cause I could'nt wait to try this tap, and I'm excited about the results, so thought I'd share. I just tried It out on a shaft, and I'm amazed By how well It works. I measured the pilot, and was getting .311 on My calibers, so I went to looking for drill bits around the size of the pilot, and could not find one close enough to My liking, but I just happened to have a brand new 6 flute reamer the same size as the pilot, so I center drilled, then step drilled with 2 different drill bits, and followed up with the reamer then tapped. Dead nuts perfect, the cats meow!! I usually use wax and work the tap back and forth, sometimes use the ca method, but needed neither with this tap. I tried the 3&1 that Mike mentioned in another thread, and went all the way through in one shot, making some really nice looking threads.
One other thing, I was wondering about the flat bottoms on the G-10 pins, well it seems that due to the pilot that is what this tap creates making for alot of contact on the pin threads. I though at first that this may not be good for standard pins since there would be less contact, but i screwed the shaft onto a cue with the v bottom threads, and you would'nt know there was less contact from the feel. You can screw the shaft only half way on the pin, not making contact with the joint faces, shake the cue, and there is no slop between the handle and shaft. It is not too tight to screw on either, the perfect amount of snug IMO. seems to work nicely with both pins to me. I wouldn't hesitate to recomend one. I did all this on My hightower, and It's seen a fair amount of use, but It was no problem for this tap & the correct reamer.
Greg
