Boys and Girls,

 

After reading JJ’s project about Optical Center Punch with the punchline of “until someone  on  LJ's said they were out of stock of them at Lee Valley”,  I came out of retirement and thought I'd ratify his project by this out of left field, redundant review.

 

Now JJ has outlined how any intellectual woodworker can replicate such a wonder punch, I immediately realised that not everyone of us is as dexterous and inventive as JJ, so for all us other humble fumblers, here is a review I did of what I believe is the same product over at Lumberjocks in 2019 and could probably be purchased when re-stocked.... OOPS..... Just checked out Lee Valley and they are no longer produced.  If people bother to read my original review below, and JJ's sounds the equivalent, don't hesitate to put the hard word on him to fabricate and charge you a kings ransom for one of these gems.

Closest I could see after Googling "Optical Centre Punch" are:- 

The precision of these type of gizmos may seem to most naysayers an un-necessary waste of shekels, however, don't we all strive for perfection..... just don't look in a mirror.

----------------------------------------- ooooOOOO From LJ OOOOooooo --------------------------------------------- 

 Boys and Girls,

I have quite a few dodgy items in my workshop as no-one has written a review prior to me purchasing… or I was too lazy to do a search!

As it's not fair to review my own jigs, for your edification I thought I might take the time to review this Veritas offering that I received as a Christmas present and Santa wasn't successful in reversing the inappropriate delivery.

Now most of my scribes and centre punches seem to have tolerances in the caliber of 1/16"+. If you don't suffer a similar malpractice or don't care about accuracy, go and read some other article.

My standard "centre punch" arsenal consisted of this spring loaded gadget (should do a separate review on this item),

that required two hands to operate and if you pull it off the mark, it's AORR (All Over Red Rover)...
and this muscle builder 

that requires the strength of a gorilla to operate when new and has a tendency to slip when "broken in" (should do a separate negative review of this).

The Veritas gizmo comes in a neat black box (Gallery happy-snap #1) and comprises of 3 parts (Gallery snap #3 and by the curtesy of this duck, duplicated here to save you scrolling up),

First off you need to make a mark. I use and X which I have been practicing as my signature for the last 70 years… at least since my introduction to crayons. 

Now don't fret if you cannot recognise the X and say that's a bloody plus "+" sign. Education for creating an X is outside the scope of this review, however, once you have marked your spot, it's now a case of how accurately you can indent the intersection to drill at the exact location.
And don't anyone dare to say that's a sideways picture...
 
You roughly place the brass body over the mark… 

by that I don't mean you slam it down on the work piece but exact alignment is not critical at this stage… and slide the plastic optical sleeve down the shaft 

By moving your preferably open eye close to the knobby end of the plastic sleeve… 

it will be obvious when you have the right focus and if your eye starts to bleed you moved too close… you will notice a very fine set of cross-hairs at the other end of the plastic sleeve. There is no need for any special lighting other than a dark workshop is not recommended. Now this cross hair would be about 1/10 the thickness of a pencil line so take some care in centering it. Please don't look for an X if you only marked a dot (or a +). Unfortunately I could not focus the camera to take a picture so you'll just have to trust me… ducks do not lie… they stand erect and only fly south when caught out.
 
With the cross-hair centered and firmly holding down the brass body (and please, try not to move it), withdraw the plastic sleeve with your free hand and slide the metal punch down the shaft, 

using the same hand… continually holding the body firm in the same spot with the original hand.
Preferably have it handy rather than trying to grope for it, pick up a mallet, hammer or whatever is your favourite bashing implement and dexterously whack the punch with your chosen battering ram.
 
Hint.....
You should take a few practice blows in the same/similar material… preferably away from your X to gauge the size of the resultant indentation and adjust your voracity accordingly. Too big and your drill may not centre properly and too small will not be much better. 

As a whacker, I whacked it hard… and as is commonly whispered in the woodworking community, practice makes a nice hole in timber when resorting to the use of a force driven centre punch.

Pack your 3 pieces back in that neat black box before you start drilling as they have the propensity to roll into places that you will have an adversity of NOT reaching.
 
Drill away, however, I do recommend you use a drill press and an appropriate diameter drill bit so you can drill a perfect perpendicular hole in the exact spot you desire, otherwise you have just wasted the purchase of your Veritas punch and my time in writing this review. 

. 

Hope you get inundated by orders JJ... and if you others don't order one, you must have the eyesight of a 16 yo.

 

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