And here's the thing that I've learned from experience. If a buy a quality used tool like a Greenlee for this purpose and I use it for a couple of years and maybe punch a few chassis with it and take good care of it:
1> It'll probably hold up and not disintegrate into a useless piece of trash the first time I use it.
2> If I don't need it anymore, I'm likely to be able to resell it for about what I paid for it (I might even get lucky and make a small profit on it).
Also on a lot of the e-bay auctions for Greenlee punches, you can get a VERY closeup view of the cutting edge and see whether it's dull or not. Take a look. You might be surprised at the quality of the close-ups of a lot of them.
1> It'll probably hold up and not disintegrate into a useless piece of trash the first time I use it.
2> If I don't need it anymore, I'm likely to be able to resell it for about what I paid for it (I might even get lucky and make a small profit on it).
Also on a lot of the e-bay auctions for Greenlee punches, you can get a VERY closeup view of the cutting edge and see whether it's dull or not. Take a look. You might be surprised at the quality of the close-ups of a lot of them.
That would be worth buying *IF* the threads fit the Greenlee punches - it would be nice to have the option to use them hydraulically rather than spinning a wrench. That being said, I doubt the threads would match, and I'm not so tempted as to buy a set to find out...
-Pat
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Interesting that all the complaints were about the bolt. perhaps a trip to the bolt store for a good quality bolt would answer the issue.
Not all of them were. A couple of them were the blades bending out. I also didn't copy all of them. I figured I had enough to make the point that it's not a quality tool.
The topic of their poor quality has come across these boards before as well.
http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/tubes-valves/189191-tools-cutting-tube-socket-holes-2.html
User Wavebourn: "When I wanted wider holes to punch I decided to save some money and ordered punch set from Harbor Freight Tools. A first,they have wrong construction: both waste peace kept getting jammed, and the punch itself was hard to pull of the hole after punching. The good side of the story is, they did not last long: internal parts got bent and worn out after punching of holes for one only aluminium chassis."
And that's just the first I found. I know there are other stories on the boards about how bad they are.
I think it would be a waste of money to even try getting the right bolts for them.
The topic of their poor quality has come across these boards before as well.
http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/tubes-valves/189191-tools-cutting-tube-socket-holes-2.html
User Wavebourn: "When I wanted wider holes to punch I decided to save some money and ordered punch set from Harbor Freight Tools. A first,they have wrong construction: both waste peace kept getting jammed, and the punch itself was hard to pull of the hole after punching. The good side of the story is, they did not last long: internal parts got bent and worn out after punching of holes for one only aluminium chassis."
And that's just the first I found. I know there are other stories on the boards about how bad they are.
I think it would be a waste of money to even try getting the right bolts for them.
And they wouldn't be run-of-the-mill bolts, either - they're large diameter, fine pitch threads - I don't think they're standard bolt threads.
-Pat
-Pat
Actually, belay that last comment - I just measured the conduit set I have and the large one is 3/4-16 & the smaller one is 5/16-24. I could have sworn they were finer pitch than normal. D'oh!!
-Pat
-Pat
i keep several bolts, discard when worn out and used a fresh bolt,
then i go out and buy another for spares,
takes years for them to wear out if just for hobby...
then i go out and buy another for spares,
takes years for them to wear out if just for hobby...
Greenlee Hydraulic Knock Out Punch | eBay
Well you can have one for a mere $510 + $40 shipping. What a bargain.
Drat!! Missed it by three minutes!! 😡 😛
<whew>
It would be sweet to have one, but I (at this point) really couldn't justify it to myself. I'm sure with some thought I could talk myself into it, but don't plan to. My wallet will be happier this way.
-Pat
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