Unglamorous.....but, almost essential.....

Re: Question

mark nowicki

Buy them and let us know.

Harbor Freight transfer punches are just fine

Dick Coers

HF punches are good enough quality for what I do, especially for woodworking.

Yes

John in NM

For things like this HF is fine. Our machinist at work actually likes HF for a surprising number of things - including parallel sets and dial indicators that may get bumped around.

I used to say that HF was good for anything with no moving parts, until I got a small sledge hammer that had a cast iron head glued on the handle! But they are still a decent place to get things like that transfer punch set.

Re: Question

roger lance

I don't recall where I bought mine......but, I'm absolutely positive I didn't pay any hundreds of dollars for them.

I've noticed that Lee Valley now sells the set I have.

I'd imagine that the HF set would be just fine.....you do hit them with a hammer to make your mark; so, they would have to be able to take that abuse. I've never really been much concerned with how accurate they are in their dimensions (thickness).....I use whichever transfer punch best fits the hole I'm trying to match.

for $11

David Weaver

For woodworking, just about anything is probably acceptable....

.. but i noticed that the listing says that even those cheapies have hardened tips. I can't locate mine right now, but HF is literally 1/2 mile from my door, so I guess i know where to go to get more.

No kidding, I'm waiting for the shellac to dry on a rosewood guitar neck that had enough grain conviction in the peghead to bungle the spacing for the tuners. Making a deep mark and avoiding that is something I'd have gladly paid $11 to fix.

On the other end of the spectrum, I have a machinist and mechanical engineering friend who is well heeled and appreciates everything being made precisely. He'd spend the difference, and that's fine.

When I went to google to look these up relative to others, I noticed something we're all familar with - there are some import sets sold in different places, and the same set in the same holder may be $19 at one place and $74 at the next. if there's a middle ground on these in anything other than intentional pricing tiers. I'd be surprised.

Re: for $11

Barry Irby

I have a Reliant 15" planer a guy practically gave me. As far as I know, they are out of business and I needed a couple of parts. Bought them from Grizzly and they fit fine. Not sayin' they are the same, but you figure it out.

Re: I seriously doubt there

Larry Clinton At Frankfort, (Central) Indiana

is any measurable difference in the final work piece when using these for woodworking verses a Starrett set.

I wouldn't recommend the HF set if they were being used to locate dowel holes in a die set.

But after marking wood will almost certainly move more than the tolerance difference in the set. The cheapest set may be a little softer and be off center a .001" inch or so, neither will have any effect for woodworking.

transfer punches

John K Jordan

For those unfamiliar with transfer punches the important thing to remember is they are not intended to put divots in metals such as you would do with a center punch.

Many sold do are not harndened punches. There are poor reviews on Amazon lamenting how their punches were ruined with the first hammer blow.

These are used for transferring the the centers of of a hole to another part. Marking wood with a soft tap is fine on unhardened transfer punches. If marking steel or even aluminum, you can first coat the metal with Dykem Blue or some other layout fluid. Mark the dye without impact force, not the metal. Then if needed use the center punch, laser, or other means to align the drill or end mill with mark.

JKJ

Spellmanco. *LINK*

virgil johnson

These are the premo ones. I bought the fractional set back in the machine shop days. As you mentioned just a little tap will do when marking steel.


http://https://www.rlspellmanmfg.com/products/fractional-transfer-punches/

Nice!

John in NM

Betcha they don't bend as easy as the HF ones! We must have 6 sets in the shop at work, all bent from being waled on by noobs that don't know any better.

Pretty overkill for woodworking, but a nice set of tools if one wants the best.

Did you ever see those transfer points that thread into holes? First time I saw those it took some thinking to figure what the heck they were for!

transfer screws

virgil johnson

I have set of transfer screws from 6-32 to 5/8-11. Another job shop nessecity. I have the transfer buttons as well but they saw less use.