Punches!!!!!! ARGH!!!!!

[EMC45]

Not sure what is going on with modern punches, but this morning alone I have wrecked a Starrett, 2 Grace and a Brownells punch. I swear these things are dead soft. The Grace literally crumbled as I was using it. I have a good bit of older punches (better/harder) at home I will need to bring into work........

[Buckshot Bill]

Deleted

[Der Gebirgsjager]

Starter punches help. I've also broken a number of 1/16" punches, and have ground the jagged break off the tip and then they make good starter punches. They survive the first couple of good whacks needed to loosen the pin, then use the ordinary pin punch to finish the job.

[EMC45]

I filed and dressed the punches this morning until they crumbled to nothing. The punches I have at home are more hard. I have broken some throughout the years, but those get turned into starter punches, prick punches or scribes. Nail sets are pretty hard and work well for starting a pin out.

[Fishoot]

I have bent or broken more punches than I would like too. I keep a couple of nail sets (matched as close as possible, but undersized to the pin) when I need to drive a stubborn one. You can switch back to a more appropriate punch once the pin starts to move. So far, I haven't broken a nail set!

[Blanket]

Make yourself up some using a 1/4 piece of CRS round with a pin pressed in . Pins are from u joints

[GhostHawk]

2 points, if you find a good older hard solid punch, buy it, never let it go.

Second, I have discovered that a piece of .22lr fired brass will fit on one of my punches, does a great job of not marring up the side of the gun and the pin. Can be replaced as often as is needed. That trick won't work in all cases but where it does work it is sweet.

I have been lucky enough to find several good old punches at auctions. They don't leave my house or my sight. I do have one cheap set of Harbor freight punches that seem fairly good. The smaller ones will bend, but I would rather have them bend than break.

Also save your broken Lee depriming pins. Darn handy size, and they are harder.

[gzig5]

You've broken four tools from three different manufacturers, and it's the tool's fault?

[fourarmed]

I like blanket's idea. Brownell's makes something similar. It's a rod with a collet on one end where you put a 1/16" replaceable pin similar to a decapping pin. I have had to replace the punch part once. The free length is about a half-inch, but that is enough to get most pins broken loose.

[10-x]

Lucky to have quite a few Snap On punches from the 70's. I've made super hard punches from old masonary bits, old ones not the china **** thats sold everywhere. Ususlly put kroil or similar on any pin overnight, heat pin with magnifing glass in the sun focused on the pin, then let it cool. Sometimes it works.

[Shiloh]

You ruined a Starrett punch?? I have 2 Starrett punches that I asked for from my dads estate. Gotta be 60 or more years old. No shattering those. What a shame.

Shiloh

[EMC45]

I was knocking the rivets out of an 870 receiver. Actually 5 of them. I should have grabbed my automatic punch (Starrett) and used it at work. I am very shocked with the Grace punches, they just crumbled. I have older punches as well of my own- Snap On, Sears, Craftsman, Starrett even a JC Penney punch. They are all better than the ones I used the other day.

[Texas by God]

I save all the old US or Swiss made punches I can find. Lee Loader priming punches are good for large pins as are broken Mauser firing pins. On a pin that hasn't moved in 100 years- soaking in a penetrant for a week won't hurt. Small punches break when they meet their match.
Best, Thomas.

[country gent]

We used ejector pins for making punches at work. Very good steel and meant for repeated impacts. We turned up handles from Brass copper or steel drilled a slightly under sized hole 1" deep and pressed the pin into it. On bigger punches we drilled a small thru hole so if the pin was damaged it could be pushed out and replaced easily. Starting with a short punch to get the pin moving, or one just long enough to do the job makes for a much stronger punch. Using a 4" punch to remove a 1" pin is asking for problems. On roll pins a cup style point on the punch helps release compress the pin when struck also.

[Ragnarok]

Mayhew makes decent punches...can get them at NAPA

[brassrat]

Won't be buying anymore new Lymans.

[10-x]

Have kind of retired most of my old Starret stuff, all of it. Very hard to replace, no pun on the hard part,LOL. Always look at flea markets cause old Starret and Brown and Sharpe stuff shows up cheap.

[Reverend Recoil]

I have made many good punched by grinding Allen wrenches and concrete nails to shape.

[KCSO]

If you get some lathe time turn a set of punch handles from stock and drill for inserted punch heads. I use old drill bits, when they break turn out the locking set screw and tap out the insert and slide in a new one from another drill bit. I also use a very short starter punch to get things going and then switch to a longer punch to finish up it sure saves bending a thin punch.

[Teddy (punchie)]

Not sure why they are all breaking. Maybe it the size. I have trouble with 1/8 rivets on the sickle bar. Every so often I get a junk one, they just go in trash. But for the most part they last until I miss or try and use them wrong. I look for brown colored ones in yard sales, flea markets. By the way I'm using a 12 once hammer to 3 pound sledge , mostly a 20 once ball peening hammer