A few years ago I ran into a company closing down in Albuquerque and they were liquidating some equipment.. I seen the post and happened to be in town at the time so I dropped on by….This was the first time my eyes had seen a manual bench press like this (the hamster wheel in my head was starting to spin)….. I thought this can work in my studio, not only cutting the disc but providing a center divot to drill a hole too ….So I committed to making it work, I mean after all it was designed to punch holes right!. After lugging the little beast home I started looking for the other punch and dies that I could use in it.. Collecting 20 separate punches and dies over a few months, I was ready to rock and roll.. Well I still had to cut and fit the urethane stripper for each size set, fab a little aluminum chute for the saved discs.. It took a little getting use to but once it was set up and running smooth, I was knocking out discs to make beads.. In the time consuming practice of making beads by hand, this press is helping with production time. Now I’m not saying drop everything and go buy one, I just want to remind you to think outside the box and there will always be more than one way to crack the same peanut…

Enjoy the pictures and check out the short YouTube video at the bottom…

Here is a short video of a nice set of graduated beads I made for a great client..