Cable Matters 110 Punch Down Tool with 110 Blade, Ethernet PunchDown Tool, Keystone Punch Down Device for Cat 8/7/6A, Cat 6, Cat5e/5 Network

I am not a pro network guy but for my project this punch down tool worked flawlessly for me and the 15 or so keystone jacks I had to make up.

I’ve owned one of these before and it lasted 3-4 years and worked well the size is standard so it’s great. It’s easy to use and looks cheap but gets the job done. After 3 years or so my bag got wel on the bottom and it rusted the release for the bit, that made it fall out but other then that it was still working. This is good for everyday but I would say it’s good to have this as a backup or spare in case for some reason you left your punch down somewhere and you have this one on hand to get the job done.

I have been rewiring my new house with 24 drops of Cat6 using a punchdown tool that I used to wire my last house. That tool is cheap and annoying – a scissor type that doesn’t cut as well as it once did and relies on the resistance from the scissor to punch. I thought I would treat myself to a better tool and blindly trusted Cable Matters to deliver.

This Cable Matters punchdown tool has a heavy bit that has an angled cutting blade. My first impression was that though the blade did not reliably cut wires and they had to be fidgeted off the jack. The bit was heavier, the tool fit better, wires (the few times they were cut) were cut closer to the jack, and had a better hammer than the cheap-o tool I was using. All in all, it wasn’t perfect, but it was better.

While punching down the 4th keystone jack of the day, the hammer stopped. The collet was angled with a single ball bearing dislodged. In order to repair the tool, I opened it and found the smaller hammer spring badly bent, and there was no way to disassemble the collet to repair it.

My former thoughts of Cable Matters was that they were a good company. My experience was they sell high quality all copper cabling. There is absolutely no way they actually manufacture this tool, rather they simply sell a design widely available.

The terrible quality of this tool will definitely cause me to take pause ordering ANY cable matters products from here on out.

Perhaps if Cable Matters is looking to offer a punch down tool and they don’t want to bother manufacture one themselves, they should shop around and test some designs out so their customers don’t have to.

This tool is absolute garbage and didn’t last 20 minutes. I spent more time trying to repair it than I was able to use it for. DO NOT BUY. My cheap scissor-based punch saved the day again. Though I don’t like that tool either, I will always keep one in my bag for when the fancy tools from companies that are cashing out their good names fail.

I was torn with this item whether to rate it 4 or 5 stars.

Pros:
~ cheap
~ reversible blade, one side cuts, the other does not.
~ adjustable spring, however so far in my experience I am not sure where you would need to adjust the spring.
~ Some people are suggesting that they aren’t getting clean cuts from it. This the first punch down tool I have every used, but from my experience it seems to cut fine. I realized immediately the effectiveness of the cutting action is really dependent on how you hold the keystone jack and how sharply you punch the wire down. Initially I tried punching down against the wall, but after a practice round, I found it functioned better when I placed the keystone jack down on a flat hard surface like the floor. Half the time the wire would cut cleanly, and half the time it would score the wire to that a very light bend or touch would cause the end to fall away. Maybe if you are a network specialist and very experienced with a variety of punch down tools you would expect it to fully cut away the wires with no further intervention every time. But for me in my home…having to gently “pluck” the wires off after punching down seems fine.

Cons:
~ it does feel like a cheaper tool. That is sort of an intangible concept, but you can tell when holding something in your hand by the mass and the solid feeling of it how well its made. This does feel a bit light and flimsy, but that sort of explains the low price. So I decided to not deduct a star for this.

In summary, given that I will likely only use this tool one time while installing all my home network, the cost seems to justify the functionality and cheaper feeling of the tool. I would much rather spend $10 on a limited use tool than $50 for a professional tool merely for the convenience of not having to barely touch the wires after punching down to get them to fall away. I am a very satisfied DIY user.

Here are the supplies I used to built my media infrastructure:
Keystone plates = http://amzn.com/B006IKGHVC and http://amzn.com/B006IKHAZY
Blank Keystone = http://amzn.com/B006IKH0EA
Keystone Mounting Bracket = http://amzn.com/B003JQL0S8
Cat6 Keystone = http://amzn.com/B004D5PFGW
HDMI Keystone = http://amzn.com/B0039L3P86
Coax Keystone = http://amzn.com/B003099HOI
Cat6 Cable = http://amzn.com/B0049KV52E (the cable this review is written in)
Coax Cable = http://amzn.com/B0069F4H3G
Coax Right Angle Adapters = http://amzn.com/B00DUW3Y7G
Wall Mounted patch panel = http://amzn.com/B000HZES42
Cat6 Crimp connectors = http://amzn.com/B00BS92DCA
Strain Relief Boots = http://amzn.com/B000I20B86
Crimp Tool = http://amzn.com/B0000AZK4G
Punch Down Tool = http://amzn.com/B0072K1QHM
Coax Crimp Tools = http://amzn.com/B003J7YOTO

Worked for diy home project. Didn’t break after 60 punches and was easy to use. Buy the added keystone tray thing so you don’t punch straight through your hand.

I like it