[VAC] Re: Vistaview Windows - Automatic Center Punch

["Tom" <tmeeker@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Starrett tools made a very good automatic center punch for many years and
they probably still do.  The fire rescue crews use them to shatter glass
windows.  They were originally designed so that you could place the hardened
tip on a mark and by pressing down an internal spring adjustable hammer then
would hit the tip causing the metal the tip was placed on to upset itself.
By upsetting the metal with this tool you would then have an indentation so
you could begin drilling a hole.  With the metal upset, a small indentation
made in the metal, your drill bit wouldn't be skidding all over the place
trying to get a bite into the metal.

The cheaper tools made today are not the quality of Starrett.  There are
some very good tools out there  so remember that you will get what you pay
for.  It's probably true today that foreign tool steel is not of the same
quality that companies like Starrett would use.  Most foreign countries that
make tools in Asia are made of a lesser quality than the old time lines here
in the good old USA.

Tom