Hey Tira, is that a power dot punch???

[Brian Marshall]

Nail sets work fine... the smallest ones.

Sometimes you can get lucky and find them really cheap. (Even the Chinese ones will work)

I use them myself. Nobody has ever complained.


Brian

 

[tim halloran]

Dave: I just checked the GRS webb site and beading punches are a $1.20 apiece. Why fool around with annealing and re hardening, when you would be money ahead to just buy a new punch. Beading punches can be reshaped with a round carbide burr or as Chris De Camilis shows on his site, with a diamond.

 

[Tira]

Hello! Sorry for the late reply - I've been down in my shop working like crazy!

I used a regular jewelers punch dot tool (I don't remember the size). It was sharpened so that it worked efficiently and I also polished the outside of the "cone" to mirror finish. Then it was a piece of cake. I used it in my EnSet Plus system to punch one dot at a time in a methodical manner. The metal is aluminum so the one punch dot tool lasted for the entire project without giving out. The EnSet and EnSet Plus are available on my website for sale. The punch dot tools are available through most jewelers supply (Rio, Stuller, Gesswein, etc.).

Here is a link to the video that shows the process:Guitar Video

The punch dot is at 2:55 or so. The aluminum is 1/4 inch wide and 30 thousandths thick. :biggrin:

 

[mtgraver]

Nice video Tira, beautiful job, congratulations also on your upcoming contest.
Mark