How to punch hole in paper?

A compass cutter might do the job; for example:-

"SS" asked:

I used to punch very clean holes in card using a well-aimed Smith & Wesson Model 27 .357 magnum with a wadcutter round - until the Blair (B-liar?) government confiscated our legally-held handguns to make the streets of Britain safe!

If you can get hold of one, this will punch a hole around 9.06mm diameter, which might be close enough ;-)

In message , SS writes

I have punched holes in gasket paper with a *sharpened* piece of copper tube.

I did mine on a lathe but you could get 10mm in a normal drill chuck. Fine file or glass paper backed by something flat and hard to create an edge. Care as always with powered rotating work!

I punched onto the end grain of an Oak block. Might be good to push out the waste discs rather then let them plug the bore.

regards

Fold to a point and place point under one of the holes into a paper punch, open paper out flat hole should be in the centre

SS :

Real paper punches cost a lot of money but I got a cheap 'hobby' tool on eBay for a couple of quid. I use it to punch thumb slots in the edge of heavy paper for wall calendars. For that sort of light duty it's fine, and there's no way I could do it as well by hand. Might be worth a look?

compass cutter laser cutter piece of 1/2" (steel) pipe ground down to make a sharp edged punch. Use e.g. lead or wood base.

Angle grinder...

Thanks guys the piece of tube should do it once I get something near the size.

Previous suggestion of folding paper is a no no as I dont want fold marks as its actually for a clock face.

Go and buy a set of "wad punches" - they're useful and not expensive.

They're steel tubes, hardened. Some are optimised for making holes, some for making circles, depending on whether they're sharpened with the bevel inside or outside.

If you don't want to buy them, make your own. You need steel tube, ideally a hardenable high-carbon steel, or else stainless, and enough machining kit to put a neatly square edge on it. Then bevel, harden (which might involve case hardening) and sharpen. For 6 holes, you can skip the hardening. Punch through the paper onto an offcut of MDF or hardboard, but not tree timber.

Clamp it between two pieces of wood and put a 10 mm drill through.

Nice one dennis. That would give a tidy cut. thanks

Wouldn't it be easier to use a compass from a child's geometry set, mount a craft knife or something sharpish in the pencil holder, and job done?

Are you a tight wad?

Put the sharpened tube in a drill press and rotate it slowly. You can then cut through almost anything soft, like cardboard, leather, fibre, plastic. I do this often. Have wood underneath!

One of these is only £2.99:

Craft shops have these kinds of punches as part of their regular stock.

MM

A punch is the best way to do it, a set of punches will only cost a few £'s. Something like this will do the job:

An old fashioned brace-and-bit type bit might do it. They have a knife near the edge. Of course if you don't happen to have one you might as well buy the proper tool!

Andy

In message , SS writes

How far are you from Watford?

I have a set of punches

At £1.99 from Proops this is an alternative - at the bottom of the page on: