Out with the old, in with the new…..er
Our old faithful Punch Press, lovingly referred to as Old Punchy, finally gets to retire at the hand of some (slightly) newer equipment. Old Punchy was made back in 1915 by E.W. Bliss. They were manufacturers of a lot of machines used in war, pre-electricity, ran by a belt/water wheel. That company eventually ended up making torpedoes. When we got Old Punchy he was about 80 years old. The last thing Old Punchy did before we got him was to punch out fence posts for the Shasta County Jail. We then got him set up to punch out tabs and brackets for our Safari Window Kits. We sort of babied it along til it was finally time to took into other options.
We got lucky that there was recently an auction locally at Skyway Manufacturing. Skyway was known for producing BMX bike parts, and New Punchy was responsible for stamping out things like the famous hubs for the Skyway Tuff Wheels. Since the 80s, Skyway has moved on to doing all sorts of wheel applications, including parts for wheelchairs. New Punchy was made in 1957 in San Jose, so even though we say it’s newer, it still has plenty of history behind it.
Head of our manufacturing department, Joe Vanenkenvort, will spend the next few days getting it set up and modified to continue to stamp out our beloved Safari Window pieces, continuing the quirky history of this machine. As for Old Punchy? We are trying to find him a nice museum to retire in, or possibly return him to a previous owner.