Eye Punch

[Donal Harris]

How do you form this?

Do you just drill a hole in the center of a ball punch and then use that to punch the end of another punch?

[pnut]

You could put it in the vise and use a ball or bob punch for the large impression then a center punch for the smaller one. Or you could make two different punches. 

Pnut

[arkie]

If you don't need the center protrusion (for an eye's iris, I presume) just chuck the punch vertical in a drill press and use whatever size bit you need.  I've made about 4 different ones like that.  You could even use a small ball type carbide bur if you didn't want the kind of hole the bit would make.

[Donal Harris]

I don’t need an eye punch. Not yet anyway. I just saw one about three years ago at the Saltfork booth at the tractor show in Sulphur. Our president at the time, Byron, had a couple and I asked him how to make one.  He told me, but all I got out of it was “you make this tool to do that and then you use that tool to make that”. I have never been able to process verbal instructions. It is almost like dyslexia some folk have with reading. 
 

He did tell me they turned out to be not quite as useful as he had thought they might. He said it was actually easier to use one punch to form the eye and then a second for the iris. 

[Glenn]

This is where modeling clay is your friend.  Push the modeling clay into the eye of the object and when removed it will give you the impression on the end of the tool used.  It is now up to you to figure out if it was one punch tool, multiple punches, or one tool multiple times being used to make the eye.

Eye punches are relative easy to make.  Choose a stock, say 3.8 inches round and heat the end.  Clamp in a vise and use a center punch to put an indentation in the end of the tool.  While the tool is still hot, use the indentation to center the stock over a BB or other object and whack the end of the stock to form a dome in the end of the stock.  Grind the end of the stock to center the impression on the stock and grind to taper the stock, so just the end of the stock can be used to form the now pupil of the eye.  Test the new punch in clay to be sure this is the impression you want and adjust as needed. Repeat to form an eye socket, and or an eyebrow.  Several different size eye punches may be needed.

The exact position of the bunch on the metal does not have to be perfect and can be changed to make a crossed eye, funny expression, etc. 

You may want to reference how to make an eye punch.

Eye punches