# Punch or pen end



## rgray (Apr 6, 2020)

This is an end for a punch I'm building. It later gets a .067 hole drilled aprox. .200 deep in the small end to hold a 1/16 roll pin to 
make it easier to start into it's hole.
It's O-1 tool steel and I'll harden them also.
It's also a tip for a pen I build. It is drilled right after threading if it's going to be a pen tip. Final drill size if I remember right is a #40.
The tips done that way fall into the chip conveyor and I have to retrieve them. 
The punch end not being hollow stays in place and I break it off. It's kinda handy that way so I never changed the program to cut deeper.
I've built the pen tips from O-1 and hardened them and also built them from brass. Most people I show them to like the brass tips
best, and that suits me cause they machine very nicely.
Tips are also done with an 1/8 inch hole for 1/8" punch. 
We have an assembly that needs 1/8, .093, and 1/6" punches. So the 1/8" stock for punches is left full size or ground  to the smaller sizes on the end. These punch ends are then replaceable in the punch assembly for when they break.


----------



## Alexander McGilton (Apr 6, 2020)

Have any close up photos of the end result?


----------



## rgray (Apr 6, 2020)

I haven't been very good about my you tube videos. Here's some of the stuff I've been building.
The 4 rods at the bottom are the punches. 4th from the bottom is how I started out trying to make them. In one piece. This turned out to be a problem as they are next to impossible to grind decently. I tried every trick I know and finally gave up and consulted google, and sure enough grinding small pins is a real problem. It's amazing how quickly they can tear up a wheel.
Also the one piece built from 1/4" stock is so flexible it moves away from the cutter making a tapper. If you look close you can see 2 ridges in that punch from it flexing away from the cut. 4 bar pulls on that, in order to have a small stickout from the collet and still a noticeable set of ridges.
Third from the bottom is 2 piece punch. 1/8" stock is loctited into the small ends. 
Bottom 2 are 1/16" punches. Made by cutting lengths and drilling centers in. Then hardening and then grinding to size between centers. They grind nice that way as the centers prevent vibration. Those 2 are right off the grinder with the center not yet removed from the business end.

Ok.. up from there is a 1 piece .093 punch with it's handle, one of the very few one piece I ground.
Above that same thing.

Now I'll switch and count from the top.
5th from the top is 1/16 " roll pin installer punch and the end by it's self right above it is same with 1/16" roll pin slid in the punch end.
2nd and 3rd from top are my pens I keep on my desk. Tips on them are rejects, they are off center slightly.
Holding the phone at an angle to try to eliminate the shadow makes them look much worse than they actually are.
Top one is my latest pen style, the grooves on the other pens prove much harder to do than the acme thread.
Plus I like the thread better anyway.
It"s been heat treated and blasted so next will get polished.
I'm using fisher space pen refills so my pens will write on papers my dirty hands have touched.

I often put a pen in a picture for size reference. Not sure if those pens count for that.
They are 3/8 dia bodies and 5.5 inches long approx. Punch handles are 3" long.

All from O-1 steel or brass.


----------

