Returned this item b/c it was rusty.

I saved this in one of my lists hoping someone would buy it for me for over a year! I was cutting the shape out on 22 gauge sterling silver sheet by hand. It would take so long to cut and file. It's SO FAST cutting with this tool! I love it!

I use a little wood shim to stabilize and cut lube.

after cutting out just 30 discs of 28 Ga Nickel Silver (Soft copper alloy) it started to tear the edges. Punches frequently jammed. After 50 discs it was unusable. I returned it to Amazon. Buy a good quality unit, not this.

I was frustrated with this at first, but it has turned out to be surprisingly effective. After some trial and error, I can now use it to perfect circles nearly every time. The only downsides are that due to the holes being located so close together (and one of them RIGHT next to the solid edge) you can't necessarily use it to punch a smaller circle through a larger circle. But for the price, this is a great tool.

User tips: 1) USE BABY OIL. Every time, all over the plug. It makes a huge difference. 2) For ~22 ga copper/silver/~24 ga bronze/brass or thicker, ANNEAL FIRST (torch fire). The metal will fight you much less. 3) The first few times at least, you might want to draw a circle on your metal, so that looking down through the hole you can see whether your metal is centered. I still do this with the silver given how expensive it is. 4) Use a HEAVY BRASS HAMMER to punch through the plug. A steel hammer will work harden the plug, shortening its' life, and a rawhide mallet just doesn't hit hard enough. A two pound brass hammer bought at the hardware store for $12 works perfectly for punching through the plug in one try. The rawhide mallet took multiple tries, leading to scarring and warping on the metal. 4) Mark the tops of the plugs so that you know which end you can hit. 5) Do any texturing of the metal AFTER you have cut it out of the disc cutter. I tried rolling texture onto 30 ga copper and then punching out discs, and lost most of my texture. Punch first, roll/hammer/etch second.

Also the first few times you do this I'd suggest using a cheap metal (copper vs silver) and having two people. I dropped one of the plugs on the cement floor the first time, and I'm lucky it didn't mar the cutting edge.

"EYE" Shape cotter. i purchased after price fell to my comfort level, as it has limited use. it seems to have sat in storage for some time displaying about 20% surface rust. punches were still sharp and performs as expected.