Aha!

[curgoth]

A while ago, I asked about hole punches. The general impression I got is that I did in fact have the right tools. Despite that, I found if I did it by hand, it took me 15-20 minutes to cut a hole by hand through the heavy denim by twisting the punch, and hammering with a mallet made nice round circles in the wood on the other side, but didn't pierce the denim. Tough stuff.

Today I figured out how to fix it. I took the cutting tip from the manual hole punch and put it in my power drill. It's still not *easy* - after cutting eight holes, my arm is tired enough to need a break, and the piece of wood I'm using as backing is full of round holes. But it works! Work can resume on the utility belt of doom.

Comments

[olletho.livejournal.com]

Possibly starching the denim heavily would help. *shrugs*

Also possibly sharpening the cutting tip.

[curgoth]

Sharpening the cutting tip made a huge difference. Just did a couple dozen holes in rapid succession without arm strain this time. The holes are done for the top half now - that'll give me at least a night full of grommetting for Stitch and Bitch tomorrow night.

[dendritejungle.livejournal.com]

I would like to second audreyovisual's suggestion. Really. You'll kick yourself if you don't. I did. (We sell them here, but they're waaaay cheaper at Lee Valley.)