Metallics 1032CTBE Carbon Steel Tap Bottoming Type 10-32 (1pc)

The 1032CTBE cuts a 10-32 thread, the machine screw size used on electrical box ground screws, device mounting holes, and strut fittings. It's a bottoming type tap, so it threads a hole nearly to the bottom rather than tapering off like a taper tap.

Yes, that's the common use. 10-32 is the standard ground screw thread in steel boxes, and because the 1032CTBE is a bottoming tap it will re-cut full thread in the shallow blind boss at the back of the box where a taper tap would run out. If the hole is torn out past the major diameter, you're into a drill-and-retap to the next size instead.

A taper tap has a long lead chamfer that eases the start of the thread but leaves the last few threads at the bottom of a blind hole unformed. A bottoming tap like the 1032CTBE has almost no lead, so it carries full thread nearly to the base of the hole. On the job that means a taper tap to start, the bottoming tap to finish blind holes in enclosures, panel backs, and strut channel.

Carbon steel. That suits hand tapping and re-tapping in mild steel boxes, aluminum, brass, and plastic, which covers most electrical work. Carbon steel runs softer than HSS, so keep it to hand speeds with a tap wrench and use cutting oil; for powered tapping or harder alloys you want a high speed steel tap instead.

No, the 1032CTBE is the tap alone in a pouch. You'll need a T-handle or adjustable tap wrench sized for a 10-32 tap shank to turn it, plus cutting oil. Nothing else is included.

One tap, supplied in a pouch. If you're setting up a service van or a shop drawer and want a full 10-32 set, you'd order a taper tap separately alongside it, since this is the bottoming type only.