Starrett Steel Automatic Center Punch with Adjustable Stroke - 5-1/4 Length, 11/16 Punch Diameter, Lightweight, Knurled Steel Handle - 18C

I live on the Gulf coast in Texas and everything rusts if you dont keep it indoors or slather it in grease. This punch got left outside for almost two months by accident but NO RUST! Thats a big selling point for me. Punch is adjustable but I like deep divots so always use it at max pressure on steel or aluminum. On aluminum it makes a nice ding. On cold-formed steel like a metal building structure its just making an average ding, which was disappointing to me. Admittedly thats work-hardened steel but I did hope it would make a good deep dent. For mild steel the ding is good enough to center a 1/8 bit with one punch, though I usually double or triple punch everything anyway. On aluminum one punch is plenty. It feels too expensive for the difference in performance compared to the $2 HFT punch, and I still find a solid punch and a hammer does far better. However, its more convenient to use an automatic punch particularly in small spaces, plus I already own it, so Ill keep using it. Would I buy it again? Probably not. For reference, I do a lot of metal work but its all for personal enjoyment and not as a tradesman using it for a living.

Not my father’s Starrett center punch. Doesn’t operate with the same clean smooth feel. And most important it does not appear to have the very hard and very tough grade of steel at the tip as the ones I grew up with: Punching mild steel with the Starrett punch set to highest force I could press (a lot), the mill finish on the test piece is barely touched. SAD!

Starrett tools are made only with the finest of materials, performs everytime as designed, markings are outstanding and second to none. I never loan out tools ever as my Starrett tools will confess.

I always used a punch and hammer togeather. Now I am able to mark holes more quickly one handed which is especially nice when I need to drill several holes. Realizing that took away overspending concerns especially since Starrett makes high quality tools. I read some comments about the tool not resetting. I am not sure if it was the same issue I noticed but the tool would fail to reset after multiple punches. After some thought a Duh moment arrived and with it realizing I was not lifting the tool up fully from the stock after it clicked. Perhaps it has something to do with getting broken in. Since then the issue went away. The only other smidgeon of an issue is the black paint job on a small tool which can make for tedious searching. Next hardware order will include some bright color spray paint.

Great automatic center punch. Very well made, solid, excellent machining. Made in Murica.

Great for starting holes in the exact spot you want. This bad boy pits a sizeable divot in the metal and there is no bit wondering. Extremely hard to push though on the stiffest setting. The usual Starrett quality youd expect. Im a happy buyer.

A little bit pricey compared to similar items but it’s true that you get what you pay for even in these modern times - at least sometimes… The thing is a beast I thought I needed the “heavy duty“ model which is the 18C and it turns out that I absolutely did not need the heavy duty model but will be keeping it just because it’s quite the lovely tool to use. I will definitely have to get the 18A to round out the set though. Of course the reason that I was under the impression that I should get the heavy duty model (compared to the 18A which is the lighter duty model of the same design), is because of my past experiences with so-called heavy duty automatic punches… Needless to say, Starrett’s 18C sort of immediately redefined the meaning of heavy duty for me.

Works better than any hootin tootin auto punch I ever used Ill be it dagnabbit

It is good, but we have to exert a much greater push to make a blow with this. But the impact of it’s blow is too higher to make a deep point hole. One this to note is that, there are two springs inside a heavy spring at the back and a light spring at the pointed side. The light spring is narrowing towards one side and widening towards other side which we can put only in one way. The wider part of the little spring must be kept back, if you taken that spring out otherwise it will not work. You can also blow with a hammer at the backside in order to make it to blow, if you are unable to push too much pressure. No problem because it is too hard.

I bought one of these over thirty five years ago but i thought i lost it so i bought this one it looks exactly like my first one except for a little strip of knurling about a half inch from the point outside of that they are exactly the same and before this one arrived i found my old one just the name starrett stands for high quality and durability because of that i now have two of them they are made in the U.S.A because of that and the name you just cant go wrong i would definitely recommend this tool to everyone fast shipping and high quality you cant go wrong.