- Joined
- Oct 31, 2014
- Messages
- 444
Well, I've been watching Craigslist for a while looking for a turret punch of some sort for sheet metal.
A guy near me had been advertising a Rotex on and off for a while and we corresponded a bit - but he wanted more for it than I could afford so I left off the conversation with an offer of what I could afford and 'call me if anything changes' sort of message - then I continued the craigslist search.
A nice little Thor turret punch was also listed by another seller, and he and I also corresponded but once again his price was more than my budget. Story of my life, eh?
Eventually the Thor guy and I came to terms and I acquired his punch for an affordable price and I thought I was in 'turret punch Nirvana' - it did most everything I needed done - and flipping through a turret to the desired punch size 1/8" - 1" was a dream come true after spending 5 minutes at a time changing the punch and die on the ironworker (but of course we all know there's a bit of a capacity difference between an ironworker and a sheet metal punch and having both machines makes perfect sense, right?)
So, now I'm set for life in the sheet metal punch department . . . . you know what's coming now, right?
The guy with the Rotex emails and offers it to me at a price only slightly higher than my last offer. Oh dear. The Rotex does holes up to 2" and reaches deeper - and I guess I did make the offer - so now I have a Rotex, too.
The seller even delivered it - yes, it was a Rotex but it came out of a sheet metal / welding shop and had a bit more grime on it than I'm comfortable with. So the Sunday project was cleaning it up.
These punches are really cool and quite easy to disassemble and work on. It took about a half-day to completely take apart, give it a bath, assess its condition and reassemble. Several of the punches had mushroomed heads so I turned them down a bit to give a close fit without binding and adjusted several clearances. As funds allow I'll replace the ram and a few of the punches that were obviously the favorites in her previous home.
So that's my story - and my project of the day - and here are pictures of the new baby after her bath. Yes, like most everything else in my shop, she wears roller skates for greater mobility.
And I think I can stop looking for another punch - Whew!
A guy near me had been advertising a Rotex on and off for a while and we corresponded a bit - but he wanted more for it than I could afford so I left off the conversation with an offer of what I could afford and 'call me if anything changes' sort of message - then I continued the craigslist search.
A nice little Thor turret punch was also listed by another seller, and he and I also corresponded but once again his price was more than my budget. Story of my life, eh?
Eventually the Thor guy and I came to terms and I acquired his punch for an affordable price and I thought I was in 'turret punch Nirvana' - it did most everything I needed done - and flipping through a turret to the desired punch size 1/8" - 1" was a dream come true after spending 5 minutes at a time changing the punch and die on the ironworker (but of course we all know there's a bit of a capacity difference between an ironworker and a sheet metal punch and having both machines makes perfect sense, right?)
So, now I'm set for life in the sheet metal punch department . . . . you know what's coming now, right?
The guy with the Rotex emails and offers it to me at a price only slightly higher than my last offer. Oh dear. The Rotex does holes up to 2" and reaches deeper - and I guess I did make the offer - so now I have a Rotex, too.
The seller even delivered it - yes, it was a Rotex but it came out of a sheet metal / welding shop and had a bit more grime on it than I'm comfortable with. So the Sunday project was cleaning it up.
These punches are really cool and quite easy to disassemble and work on. It took about a half-day to completely take apart, give it a bath, assess its condition and reassemble. Several of the punches had mushroomed heads so I turned them down a bit to give a close fit without binding and adjusted several clearances. As funds allow I'll replace the ram and a few of the punches that were obviously the favorites in her previous home.
So that's my story - and my project of the day - and here are pictures of the new baby after her bath. Yes, like most everything else in my shop, she wears roller skates for greater mobility.
And I think I can stop looking for another punch - Whew!