Slide Hammer Punch

This slide hammer punch came from the need to punch with only one hand.
As I do not have the use of my left hand as I had a stroke 6 years ago

An automatic punch was outside my price range. So as they say necessity is the mother of Inventions.
I have been working on a model steam boat for the last 12 years and since my stroke had to come up with ways to make parts using only one hand, mainly making jigs and fixtures to hold the parts.

I you are interested you can view the progress of the boat on my website

http://gersteamengines.yolasite.com

The punch works by holding the hammer at the top of the shaft and placing the punch point where you want to punch. releasing the hammer it slides down the shaft and strikes the coupling creating a punch mark.The size of the punch mark can be adjusted by making slide hammers of different weights or sizes.

Since the punch is made from scrap material that I had laying about my workshop, there are no fixed sizes to the parts made, so if you decide o make it you can alter the sizes to the materials that you may have at hand. if you have any questions please contact me an I will do my best to help you. I have no included drawings for the parts as I made the punch without any drawings If anyone wants drawing for the punch i made I will reverse engineer the punch and send you a pdf copy or a Dxf file.

Also if you make the punch any feedback would be appreciated.

Punch I made from a broken drill bit, I used a broken 5mm drill bit

hammer made from brass valve from ball cock from a water tank or any other suitable piece of material you have available
hammer shaft rod salvaged from broken ink-jet printer

coupling from material leftover from clamp project

the punch is made from a broken 5mm drill bit. sharpen one end of the broken drill bit into a punch point, the other end can be ground square.

The coupling is made from scrap 13mm diameter bar. the bar is cut to length and each end squared on a lathe. one end is blind drilled to suit the side of the punch see sketch of the cross-section . The other end is blind drilled to suit the size of the hammer shaft shaft. at each end drill and tap for a suitable grub screw of small bolt I used a M5 bolt, but you can use whatever size you have to hand

THE HAMMER SHAFT

the material i used for the hammer shaft is a 5mm bar from an broken inkjet printer that I dismantled to see what parts i could use. But you can use an bar that you have to your hand.

THE HAMMER

I made the hammer from the brass valve from a ball cock from a water tank.it as I had it laying my work shop and did not have any other material available, so you can substitute this for any material that you have as long as you drill the centre hole a size that allows the hammer to slide down the shaft freely