I’ve never bought a set. Mostly because the only one that was available was the Waldron, and the price always seemed obscene. Over the years, I’ve looked for alternatives and even scoured the Chinese sites like Aliexpress thinking, there must be a generic alternative that doesn’t cost a fortune.
I’ve never found anything. I’ve seen the Waldron ones come in and out of production, and some eastern European sets that have appeared for a hot minute then gone OOP.
I’m at the point in scratch-building that I can’t get around not having one. Anyone know of a good product that’s currently available for purchase?
I will agree that the Waldron set seems pricey…but having tried several cheaper alternatives back in the day, I fairly quickly decided the Waldron’s quality was worth every penny. It’s still going strong with regular use after nearly fifteen years, with no maintenance beyond periodically oiling & wiping off the punches.
(The cheaper ones tended to deform and chip at the punch face, and were prone to bending.)
Harbor Freight currently lists a 9-pc. set for forty bucks here…though, unless I’m missing something, it’s not clear what the sizes are.
Kitlinx lists the 6-pc. Waldron set for about fifty-five here: (link won’t take, for some reason)
UMM has a highly-regarded 12-pc. set for about double that price here.
There are cheaper ones available, I’m sure, but you’re better off tracking those down on your own, since you know what sort of projects you have in mind for them.
Whatever you end up going with, they’re useful things to have…and you’ll wind up using them for things you probably haven’t imagined yet.
The Harbor Freight set ranges from 1/8 inch up to about 3/4 inch. I find the smaller sizes useable for masking wheels on aircraft. I’ve found occasional uses for the larger in masking the deck inside a circular gun tub. Its a nice to have tool, but not a must have.
MicroMark also sells (sold) a smaller sized punch & die set that was about 3/8 down to 1/16. More utility in masking instrument dials
After insuring that the punches are properly seated in the die, I whack them with a brass-faced jewelers hammer. It minimizes deforming them
I have both of the Waldron sets and have only used one in the last 15 years or so. I also have some of their aircraft instrument placque sets the just sit around in a box doing nothing. I have found them useful in some projects, but not lately.
It’s horses for courses when it comes to punch & die sets. I didn’t get any for the longest time due to their high cost. But once I invested in them, I found them indispensable.
One of my first uses was to make hex bolts to cap the open ends of a metal track set. The round punch set made washers for the bolts, and then I was sold. I see it this way: If a tool allows you to perform a difficult task quickly, it is worth it.
I bought a round and hex set made by Sintec from Italy. I got a Waldron set for larger diameters, but I don’t use it as much. I think the plexi shield is ridiculously flimsy, and have seen many sets with broken shields. I also have a beading tool set from a Japanese maker that makes the teeniest round head rivets, small enough to do buttons on a 1/48 shirt.
And this is my little friend, the Asgardian Modeling Hammer of legend, Mew-Mew.
I really DO use it! [:P] But all it takes is a gentle touch. Gentle.
But as I mentioned, horses for courses. A lot of modelers can get by without them, but if you scratchbuild stuff, they can really help.
And if you have the tools, you can make stuff for your friends! I made some big nuts and bolts for a friend’s Ork Stompa model which came out crazy cool, in part because of the bolt detail.
I bought myself MicroMark’s punch and die set #83513, https://www.micromark.com/Micro-Punch-Set, which has been useful for instrument panels, or punching disks out for detailing. I’ve used it to punch out instrument decals in some cases, too.
But the set has a couple of drawbacks. One is that the template is not marked, which is inconvenient. The other is that all of the pieces are loose, which is also inconvenient. I made a little case to hold them, but otherwise, you can have the punches just rolling around and knocking against each other. I would rather have gotten the Waldron sets but they weren’t available at the time. But otherwise, it has worked pretty well for me.
I have the Waldron punch and die set as well as teh sub miniature set. I just used one for the first time in well over a year or more, and that was to make a couple small pieces of decal into eyes for a figure. SOmetimes I wonder why I keep them and the placqards of instruments when along comes a project where they might be used, or not.
