Tap

In manufactured parts, holes with female screw threads are often needed; they accept male screws to facilitate the building and fastening of a finished assembly. One of the most common ways to produce such threaded holes is to drill a hole of appropriate size with a drill bit and then tap it with a tap. Each standard size of female screw thread has one or several corresponding drill bit sizes that are within the range of appropriate size—slightly larger than the minor diameter of the mating male thread, but smaller than its pitch and major diameters. Such an appropriately sized drill is called a tap drill for that size of thread, because it is a correct drill to be followed by the tap.