Located in Mesa, AZ

Pexto 36" Jump Shear:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...tem=7586039565

Rotex Turret Punch:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...tem=7586043084

Craftsman Heavy Duty Shaper:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...tem=6033050545

Dayton 14" Floor Model Drill Press:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...tem=7586069059

Hey Marty, I can't believe that the Turret Punch is up to over $2,500!!
Therefore I have to ask you, what is it? How is it used? What does it
really do just make holes?
Best wishes on the auction.
Ivan Vegvary

"Marty Escarcega" wrote in message
. ..
Located in Mesa, AZ

Pexto 36" Jump Shear:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...tem=7586039565

Rotex Turret Punch:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...tem=7586043084

Craftsman Heavy Duty Shaper:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...tem=6033050545

Dayton 14" Floor Model Drill Press:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...tem=7586069059

Turret punches are for punching holes in sheet metal, usually no
thicker than 16 ga.
They are very useful in a production sheet metal shop- I have a 24"
throat W.A. Whitney punch, which is a great punch that will punch up to
a 2" hole in 16ga. But, and its a big but, it takes several minutes,
and 2 different wrenches, to change the punch.
With a turret punch, you just pull a handle, rotate the head, and in 10
seconds you have changed punch size. If you punch holes all day long,
this is well worth an extra grand or two, especially amortized over the
50 years or so one of these punches will last.
New, these things go for well over 5 grand, and there is almost nobody
who makes em anymore- Thor just went under, I think it may be down to
Roper Whitney now.

$2500 is a decent price for one of these-- its all supply and demand,
there arent that many of em, and the people who want em, are willing to
pay. Most commercial shops that do much of this actually use a cnc
turret punch- and used, these start at $15,000, and can easily go to
$75,000. New ones, with a built in laser or plasma as well as a 50
station punch, can cost a quarter of a million bucks. So if you are
punching holes for a living $2500 is peanuts.

Industrial tools cost industrial prices. We are somewhat warped in our
price expectations, as we are in the middle of the deindustrialisation
of america, and for a few years anyway, big, expensive tools are being
sold for scrap prices. This will not last- tools are getting scrapped
at a frantic rate, or being sold overseas. And the cheezy 7" grizzly
lathes that people are buying new now are not gonna be anywhere as
desirable as 2000lb hunks of cast iron like this punch.

Thank you so much for the explanation. I learn.

Ivan Vegvary
wrote in message
ups.com...
Turret punches are for punching holes in sheet metal, usually no
thicker than 16 ga.
They are very useful in a production sheet metal shop- I have a 24"
throat W.A. Whitney punch, which is a great punch that will punch up to
a 2" hole in 16ga. But, and its a big but, it takes several minutes,
and 2 different wrenches, to change the punch.
With a turret punch, you just pull a handle, rotate the head, and in 10
seconds you have changed punch size. If you punch holes all day long,
this is well worth an extra grand or two, especially amortized over the
50 years or so one of these punches will last.
New, these things go for well over 5 grand, and there is almost nobody
who makes em anymore- Thor just went under, I think it may be down to
Roper Whitney now.

$2500 is a decent price for one of these-- its all supply and demand,
there arent that many of em, and the people who want em, are willing to
pay. Most commercial shops that do much of this actually use a cnc
turret punch- and used, these start at $15,000, and can easily go to
$75,000. New ones, with a built in laser or plasma as well as a 50
station punch, can cost a quarter of a million bucks. So if you are
punching holes for a living $2500 is peanuts.

Industrial tools cost industrial prices. We are somewhat warped in our
price expectations, as we are in the middle of the deindustrialisation
of america, and for a few years anyway, big, expensive tools are being
sold for scrap prices. This will not last- tools are getting scrapped
at a frantic rate, or being sold overseas. And the cheezy 7" grizzly
lathes that people are buying new now are not gonna be anywhere as
desirable as 2000lb hunks of cast iron like this punch.

Hey guys,

I wasn't following this thread, and I realize Pexto stuff is good
quality for what I call a "tin shop" tool, but:

http://www.amada.com/

and

http://www.amada.com/information/about/milestones.asp

still makes some amazing turret machines. Some of them have huge
throat sizes, and the CNC ones don't use as many punches as you might
imagine because they run CNC with punch hits like a machine gun, so
they cut holes of any size and shape with a small punch like a nibbler
would, then a square one to fix the corners. Amazing to see them
strike louvers too.

Take care.

Brian Lawson,
Bothwell, Ontario.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
"On 5 Feb 2006 07:00:50 -0800, wrote:

Turret punches are for punching holes in sheet metal, usually no
thicker than 16 ga.
They are very useful in a production sheet metal shop- I have a 24"
throat W.A. Whitney punch, which is a great punch that will punch up to
a 2" hole in 16ga. But, and its a big but, it takes several minutes,
and 2 different wrenches, to change the punch.
With a turret punch, you just pull a handle, rotate the head, and in 10
seconds you have changed punch size. If you punch holes all day long,
this is well worth an extra grand or two, especially amortized over the
50 years or so one of these punches will last.
New, these things go for well over 5 grand, and there is almost nobody
who makes em anymore- Thor just went under, I think it may be down to
Roper Whitney now.

$2500 is a decent price for one of these-- its all supply and demand,
there arent that many of em, and the people who want em, are willing to
pay. Most commercial shops that do much of this actually use a cnc
turret punch- and used, these start at $15,000, and can easily go to
$75,000. New ones, with a built in laser or plasma as well as a 50
station punch, can cost a quarter of a million bucks. So if you are
punching holes for a living $2500 is peanuts.

Industrial tools cost industrial prices. We are somewhat warped in our
price expectations, as we are in the middle of the deindustrialisation
of america, and for a few years anyway, big, expensive tools are being
sold for scrap prices. This will not last- tools are getting scrapped
at a frantic rate, or being sold overseas. And the cheezy 7" grizzly
lathes that people are buying new now are not gonna be anywhere as
desirable as 2000lb hunks of cast iron like this punch.

Amada's are basically what I was talking about when I said a quarter of
a million bucks. They are amazing machines. But they make $2500 for a
Rotex seem like chickenfeed.
Not sure what you mean about not using as many punches as you imagine-
the smallest Amada has 44 stations for different punches. Now you may
not need all 44, but they are available. The Rotex only has 18.

On 5 Feb 2006 14:38:51 -0800, wrote:

Amada's are basically what I was talking about when I said a quarter of
a million bucks. They are amazing machines. But they make $2500 for a
Rotex seem like chickenfeed.
Not sure what you mean about not using as many punches as you imagine-
the smallest Amada has 44 stations for different punches. Now you may
not need all 44, but they are available. The Rotex only has 18.

I wonder if you can feed sheetmetal in one end of an Amada, feed in
a (Solidworks?) CAD diagram of what you need, and get a circuit
breaker panel inner cover out the other end in one pass...?

They come up missing once in a while, and if 'someone official'
(City Code Inspector or Insurance Underwriting Inspector) notices, it
creates some excitement till a replacement is made and installed.

The interrupted tabbed break-outs for the breakers would be the hard
part to reproduce by hand - right now, I just have the sheetmetal shop
cut a big open hole and have to use filler plates for the vacant
spaces. The turned up edges for stiffening should be easy.

-- Bruce --

--
Bruce L. Bergman, Woodland Hills (Los Angeles) CA - Desktop
Electrician for Westend Electric - CA726700
5737 Kanan Rd. #359, Agoura CA 91301 (818) 889-9545
Spamtrapped address: Remove the python and the invalid, and use a net.

There are punch press tools available for punching the knockouts for
breakers- they cut, but dont remove the knockout, so you can wiggle it
out yourself as needed. You can also get tooling to punch outlet
openings, or D shaped holes for locking switches in place, and tons
more oddball sized holes or "near holes".
The catch, or course, is that not only do you need the huge expensive
machine, but the tooling is pretty pricey as well.
I sometimes weld the little tabs back into the hole, if I remove a
breaker.

But yes, you can definitely use a cnc turret punch like an amada to
make 1, or 1,000 circuit breaker cover plates- and you could email cad
drawings to the shop to have it done.
The big cnc punches nibble holes, so even if they dont have the exact
size rectangle punch for a breaker, they will nibble one with multiple
hits with a smaller square or rectangle- and faster than you can see,
too.

I am sure there is a cnc turret punch within a couple of miles of
Woodland Hills- there are some big sheet metal shops in the valley.