Over time I have bought taps, one at time, as I need them. Until the big box stores eliminated my local shop it only took me about 3 minutes to get there. I ended up with a pretty good set of decent ones but there are a lot of little stuff I always need.
Short of it is while in town today I dropped by Harbor Freight and bought one of the sets mention here in the beginning. Being "on sale" and with a 25% off coupon I only paid $11.39 for the set.
As Jerry said, carbon is for short term use ect.... so I figure it may outlast me!!! For 11 bucks I'll use it a time or two and pitch it in the trash like the last ones..... maybe Santa will bring me a nice set next year, if I'm still around.
