Roto Punch

Not thinking it through I punched a hole with this in a new phone wallet, then tried to attach a grommet from which to hang my lanyard. The instructions were not clear enough and I made a mess of it. The hole got bigger from the improperly inserted grommet tearing away. The hole iself worked fine, but was a big ragged. However, I replaced that phone wallet with the same one in a different color. The hole punch is simple and hard to mess up if you have ever used one. The second grommet I put in I did successfully, even though the two attempts were several weeks removed from one another. I examined the instructions more closely and mostly did it right on the second wallet. I would recommend this leather punch to a friend, but caution them as I have here. Find a practice piece first before you make a mess of an item you would rather not screw up.

I'll be honest, I bought the Roto Punch to try for the crafting purposes rather than leather-hole punching purposes, and that was after it had decent reviews from other people on here.The only thing that I've found the Roto Punch does well is make eyelets, but there are specific eyelet crimping tools that probably do just as good of a job.The anvil and the hole punches are not perfectly aligned leaving a little bit of space. This is not such an issue in leather, but for fabric it's impossible to get a clean punch through. There's usually a little crescent from the start of a hole. And for the life of me I cannot get it to go through more than one piece of fabric at a time. I tried it on leather, just so I could give a well rounded review, and while I could get it to punch through a thin leather belt, I did not have the strength to get it through a thicker one.Finally, the snaps, something I was looking forward to trying. Because of the the not quite flush line up of the two pieces of the snap press, the snaps just don't work. One side gets more squished than another which deforms the receiver hole making it impossible to snap it closed. If I press less hard, so that the snaps actually function, the backing is not completely pressed through and will fly off when you try to unsnap.Maybe that's why they send you two on tv, because they know half of them suck. But I bought a single one here, and mine is a pretty big flop.

The directions aren't the best, but I was able to figure it out on my own. I don't recommend this for heavy duty repairs or additions such as jeans, shoes, etc., but it's fine for lightweight repairs. I haven't used it to punch holes yet, so I can't comment on that, but have used it to add a couple of snaps to a bathing suit that was too low cut. I did pay much for it, so I didn't lose much. If you have something that needs repaired such as adding a button to a pair of jeans, creating an eyelet, or something similar, I'd recommend taking it to a professional.

Worth what you pay for it. I usually use much higher quality punches, such as those made for thick leather. I purchased this just so I had one at home to use when I didn't have time to go to much shop. They work alright on thin leather, canvas, and denim. It didn't line up very well, and I had my boyfriend grind the edges on some of them so the punch would be flat with the base. Works better now, but I shouldn't have had to do that. Pretty cheap product, but is nice to have around. Bang for your buck, but not meant for heavy use. Wouldn't recommend.

I purchased this tool to put grommets in about a dozen pair of ultra light sponge rubber running shoes that I have purchased. The shoes are the most comfortable shoes jogging shoes that I have ever owned, but they do not have metal grommets installed from the factory. If you pull the shoe strings tightly to secure the shoes you have a tendency to tear the holes that hold the shoe strings in place. This tool was purchased to repair the shoes that have torn. It does an O.K. job for this purpose.

Sometimes the eyelets turn out, sometimes they don't. It seems to vary depending on the thickness of the material. Really a bummer for that part of this thing. It punches holes perfectly, in everything from leather to satin to whatever.I think eyelets are something that is impossible. That is what I am starting to think. I'm giving up on any craft project that requires eyelets.I use this to punch holes in belts. Yaaaay. It's really easy to change the size thing, btw.

This item is overhyped. It's not as easy to use, nor does it work as well as the commercials imply. I have used it to punch new holes in belts, etc., but not without a lot more effort than you see on television. I haven't tried using the snaps yet. But the accessories are small and flimsy, so needless to say I am not too impressed with this product.

I have had this tool for a couple of years now. I have used to to punch leather, crimp eyelets on shoes, and snap buttons on cloth items. It has worked great. The included leather eyelets are "single sided" which leaves the crimped metal exposed to the the shoe laces which abrade the laces, but better quality eyelets i bought later fixed that problem. The button snaps work great. This is a great tool that I would buy again.