Hello all,
I just bought a pair of the Swanstrom hold punch pliers that punch a
2.5mm hole. I already have the ones that punch a 1.5mm hole and they
work fine. The bigger ones however held on to the the little disc
that I was punching out and I could not get it out so I called Rio
and talked to one of their tech people. She told me to open the plier
and use a piece of wire and a hammer and punch the disc back in the
direction that it was punched out. Well, this did work and I got it
out but every time that I punched another hole, I had to do the same
thing. I bought these to save some time and this was very time
consuming. So I just sent them back which made me kind of sad as I
really wanted them to work. Would any of you have these pliers that
work well or know of another brand that work right?
Thanks in advance,
Lona
I dont use small as in 2.5mm punch pliers, for that size hole I
would use the Roper whitney tool or 1 ton fly press.
However, the problem is that the pliers you describe are most
probably badly made…
To explain why.
In any punch and die setup the punch is normally parallel and the
die is also parallel for the 1st 2 mm then it tapers away toward the
die bottom so that as the punch pushes the cut metal through the
parallel part then is free to fall away once the die is bigger than
the punched metal.
This is obviously not the case in the Lindstrom 2.5mm hand tool you
sent back. They are probably a far eastern copy of the genuine
Swedish made tool.
This punch and die principle is universal to what ever size your
punching, wether its 2.5mm hole or like me a rectangle buckle back
some 4in by 2.5in on a 10 ton fly press out of 1/10th in brass.
You will need to get a GENUINE Roper Whitney hand tool, wether your
strong enough to use it is another matter.
For one operation I welded a 1 by 1in leg on to one of my RW tools
and hold in the leg vice with extensions on the top handle to punch
through some stainless steel. After 45 yrs of hard hand work ive worn
out the catilage in my thumb joints so cant grip like I used to!
I love Swanstrom, but these did not work well for me. I wound up
buying three sizes from Miland Tools, but due to Mr. Miland’s age
possibly?, someone was having trouble reaching them. If you can
still get them, I’d recommend these.
Sharon Perdasofpy
Ted,
In any punch and die setup the punch is normally parallel and the
die is also parallel for the 1st 2 mm then it tapers away toward
the die bottom so that as the punch pushes the cut metal through
the parallel part then is free to fall away once the die is bigger
than the punched metal. This is obviously not the case in the
Lindstrom 2.5mm hand tool you sent back. They are probably a far
eastern copy of the genuine Swedish made tool.
I think you have hit the nail on the head. The pliers I had were
Swanstrom, not Lindstrom just to set the record straight but I have
bought many Swanstrom tools which have always been good quality, but
these pliers were such poor quality, I was shocked. Plus, they
didn’t work at all. When I finally did get the little disc out, it
had a large rolled edge on the back side as if the punch were very
dull.
Now I have to admit something that is a little embarrassing, but I
will go ahead. I have a hole punching plier that looks like the
Roper Whitney but I had put it away and forgotten about it as it is
very heavy. I can use it to punch the 2.5mm hole but have not tried
the bigger punches. But it works quite well and the little disc
falls right out. Now I wish I had the genuine Roper Whitney but
didn’t know about it at the time.
But I did want to reply to your post and say “thank you” for taking
the time to help me out. I do appreciate it.
Lona
Hi Lona
Sorry that the hole-punching pliers did not work out for you.
Swanstrom Hole Punching Pliers 2.5mm are just that, hole punching
pliers. This tool is not designed to be used as a disc cutter so the
resulting discs are inconsequential and I would consider them as
scrap, I’m sure some users are able to use the discs for something.
So yes the discs will have a slight burr. The discs will remain in
the lower chamber and will be pushed out the bottom as these
accumulate. These are made in the USA by Swantrom tools. Swanstrom
uses high quality steel (ball bearing steel) and a state of the art
hardening process. I Hope this clarifies the function and maker of
this tool.
As always thanks for the feedback and for considering Rio Grande
Best regards
Sessin
Sessin Durgham
Rio Grande
Technical Support
1-800-545-6566 ext 13837
Hello Sessin,
Sorry that the hole-punching pliers did not work out for you.
Swanstrom Hole Punching Pliers 2.5mm are just that, hole punching
pliers. This tool is not designed to be used as a disc cutter so
the resulting discs are inconsequential and I would consider them
as scrap, I'm sure some users are able to use the discs for
something. So yes the discs will have a slight burr. The discs will
remain in the lower chamber and will be pushed out the bottom as
these accumulate. These are made in the USA by Swantrom tools.
Swanstrom uses high quality steel (ball bearing steel) and a state
of the art hardening process. I Hope this clarifies the function
and maker of this tool.
Thank you for explaining this to me. I actually thought about doing
it that way and did punch out three pieces which all stayed in the
hole but didn’t know if I should keep going. Maybe if that was an
explanation in the catalog, it would help. But sometimes I want the
hole and sometimes, I want what comes out of the hole. Maybe that is
too much to ask of one tool. I do have the same hole punch plier in
the 1.5 mm and it works like I thought it should so naturally I
thought that the 2.5mm punch would work the same. I also have
several other Swanstrom tools and do love them and think Swanstrom
makes good tools which I noted in my original post.
When I asked for some help from technical, they didn’t tell me that
the disc was considered scrap and to just keep punching until the
scrap started to come out. I talked to a girl and she had to ask
someone what to do and she told me to insert a piece of wire and
hammer it out the way it was punched in, which is what I did. So I
guess there was some confusion all the way around, including me.
But thank you again for contacting me about this and I do use Rio
Grande for most of my purchases and have always recommended them to
other people as wonderful to do business with.
Lona Northener