Astro 608PT ONYX Pistol Grip Punch/Flange Tool

This tool worked great. We used it on 2 floor pans and a upper/lower trunk floor.

I work in the automotive field and so far, it's working great. Only downsize is that there is no spec on how thick of a material that it can do. I've slightly modified mine to be able to punch thicker materials and it works fine.

This version of the Astro hole punch seems improved. We use these at our shop in small production runs. We've burned up 2 of the previous gen models. They just stop punching...I assume the cutters need replacing which they all say is easy and available which is complete load of crap. You need special metric tools to remove the the inner air cylinder. If you can find the cutters you can only replace the side that attaches to the black outer end. So, we just buy new ones. I gave it 4 stars as it comes with a 1 year warranty...the other re-branded versions you will find here or on feebay often have only a 30 day warranty. We've had one fail after 40 days....so, buy with warranty in mind. Now, this seems improved due to its improved more comfortable button trigger. Its much easy to actuate vs. the old style lever. It also makes a much stronger/faster "ka-chunk" movement as if it is more powerful. We use them on 20 gauge cold rolled steel. It works very well on that material. I have not tried 18 gauge but will soon. It gets 4 stars because for the money these things work pretty well. And this one seems to be the most powerful design yet. As far as flanging...don't waste your money...none of them can flange worth a darn. You have to overlap and it looks like crap. You gotta hit it a few times to put a step into the metal. It does not flange well on 20 gauge but it might on 22 although to be fair, I have not tried this new version's flinging. We have a bead roller for that purpose.

The product punches holes to close to the edge.

Astro does not advertise the flange offset, but I found another seller claim it to be .042", which would be 19 gauge, like found on older cars. Exactly what I was hoping for. As it turned out, the offset was more like 20 gauge or .037", maybe less.I didn't try it with 1/4" air hose because they say 3/8" minimum. With that size, and the pressure at 100 psi, there was no problem punching 18 gauge. It seems flanging is better accomplished with two strokes. Maybe cranking to 120 psi would help. It does leave some slight "dings" at the outer edges of the tooling. I may try to file the corners, but welding covers the dings anyway. Also, it does introduce a very slight warp along the flange.

JUNK, it would not work right out of the box.Since I bought it in advance of needing it, I didn't use it till it was too late to send it back.Save your money on this one. Buy one of the other styles.

My only complaint of this tool is that on older vehicles that have a larger gauge steel the flange will be a bit shallow. I got around this by tapering the flange metal and the mating piece with a grinder and sander. The tool is probably fine with new model autos with thinner gauge sheet metal and it worked fine as far as operation. It would be fantastic to have tool like this with adjustment for sheet metal gauge.

The tool work just as I expected it to. I've used it to punch holes and most of all flange rear panels. The flange makes it easy to weld in the grove. I little grinding and I have clean flush weld lines.

Liked it for the first month or so, but the firing pin stopped working and now it won’t fire at all. it’s pretty much just a paper weight now.