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center punch

a long time ago i was at a friends shop and he had a center punch that had an eye piece that you looked through to line up your center punch with your scribe marks. he called it an optical center punch. my question is does anyone know were to get one or how to make one?

thanks charles snipped-for-privacy@aci.on.ca

Reply to
c.foster
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Like this one?

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McMaster-Carr has them. Go to
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and search for "optical center punch" then scroll down the page to find it. They aren't cheap. :-)

Best Regards, Keith Marshall snipped-for-privacy@progressivelogic.com

Reply to
Keith Marshall

Hi CHarles,

Enco, Travers, MSC, and Rutland all carry these. Optical Center Punch is indeed the name. US made is $46.95 (USD) on page 470 of this years Enco catalog. I don't know the big suppliers in Canada, but these are pretty common items. It's likely they are available from an in country vendor so you can avoid having to deal with customs hassles.

There was an web page about making one, but the ezlink hit through google gave a 404. Hopefully someone has a good link, I just didn't find it.

Cheers, Stan

c.foster wrote:

Reply to
Stan Stocker

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Regards. Ken.

Reply to
Ken Davey

A friend told me he used the armor piercing core of a 50 cal. BMG. He said it never dulled, and had a needle point on it. I have a lot of these, and will soon rip one apart. Most I have are in excellent condition and you cannot see the core, but I do have a couple that are banana peeled back like they hit a solid object. They come from dry lakes in the area that were used for WW2 training.

Anyone else ever heard of this type of center punch?

Steve

Reply to
Desert Traveler

Charles, I bought one of these a year ago from

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They are in Canada but shipped promptly and had a good price on it. It does really help to get that center punch mark on the mark. :-) Paul in NE Ohio

Reply to
Paul Hiers

Hi Charles, I wanted an optical punch so I made one. It wasn't difficult & it works like a dream. There is a pic at

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to give you an idea of scale, the punch is about 55 mm. (2 1/8") long. There is one in the Model Engineer's Workshop (issue No. 25) but mine is much easier to make & use. I would have got the details from the net, but cant find them at the moment. If you require details, mail me & I will do all I can to help.

Cheer's, Ian Sutherland. (Oz)

Reply to
Ian Sutherland

Over the last few years Lee Valley seems to be adding what have traditionally been metal workings tools to their woodworking line (verniers, indicators, etc) I've never examined the Lee Valley punch but do notice that, while they have traditionally carried quality lines (although this is slipping a bit compared to say Garret Wade), the metal working tools they carry are low quality. No doubt because of woodworking's lower tolerance requirements - a woodworker is happy paying $19 for vernier and doesn't need a Starrett.

an alternative for you in .ca is KBC (who also carry a lot of crap, but also the good stuff). they've got a good catalogue worth having about. usual no-connection disclaimer

Reply to
Michael

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