Circa 123 Portable Punch
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Portable Hole Punch
I love the hole punch! It is so nice to be able to add pages to my notebook like meeting agendas or documents that I type up and print so that I can refer to them in one place, organized.
Also, the travel punch is very lightweight and sleek, making it easy to take along with me if needed.
May 26, 2013
good for the short term
I was using the 1-2-3 punch today on some flimsy note cards. After about 20 cards, the middle section of the top of the punch became dislodged. I have been unable to reattach it. I am sorely disappointed with the quality of this punch. The only way I am able to use it now is to press down the individual punches with a metal instrument which defeats the whole purpose . I thought better of your products than this. Suggestions as to fixing the punch?
May 19, 2013
Perfect for the laptop bag!
This is a portable unit perfect for travel or the laptop bag. It does one sheet (heavier) at a time as noted. You can do 2 thinner sheets quite easily. I love it and feel it is an outstanding buy for the functionality and portability. I would very much like to recommend this if you a small and portable hole punch for the Circa.
May 4, 2013
Perfect!
Can't understand why some people are not happy with this. It's perfect for travel, light, takes up no space. It's a great tool,
I use it almost every day.
April 6, 2013
Sturdier Than I Expected
Having had and used the desk punch for over fifteen years, I'd long eyed and thought about the "portable" punch for almost as long. The thing that kept me from moving forward with that was the fact that it involved two pieces and that one of those seemed rather bulky--not something I looked forward to dropping in my bag.
The compact nature of this punch first caught my attention, but I had some reservations based on a previous review which made it sound like the punch itself was rather flimsy. But with the low price point, I figured that it would be worth the modest investment even if it turned out to be as fragile as some of the cheaper paper punches you'd find at supermarkets or office supply stores for under ten dollars.
Imagine my surprise and pleasure when I received the punch itself and found it to be much more substantial than I had expected, based on that review.
Yes, it's almost entirely made of plastic (or "polymer" as my engineer friends would say), but so are the canopies of fighter jets. But there's a reassuring heft to the punch provided (I don't doubt) by the cutting hardware.
I was expecting that given the segmented nature of the punch, I'd only be using one section for PDA-sized sheets, two for Junior sized, and only need all three for Letter sized sheets, and while it seems I only need the center portion for PDA, Junior requires using all three sections. I suppose that could be considered a Good Thing since if you're like me and tend to favor Junior-sized notebooks and agenda, you'd end up wearing two sets of punches much more than the one set which got infrequent use.
But the thing about this punch which really pleases me is its compact size. With the pressure plates locked down (and while I feel some trepidation about how long the small tabs and sliders which constitute the locking mechanism will last, I'm not going to borrow problems which may never rear their heads), I feel no qualms whatsoever about dropping the unit into my bag along with my other things. Although I've been tempted to make a leather sleeve which would offer a bit of protection (not to mention redundancy in case one of the locks should inadvertently open). I really love having the punch with me all the time and find myself using it much more than is probably absolutely necessary since it's fun to play with. Perhaps that will change as the New Toy Syndrome ends, but I rather suspect otherwise.
I can't really speak to the topic of longevity since I only recently got the punch, but I'll be sure to pipe up if I run into any issues.
November 12, 2012
Ok product but there are better.
I got this as a free gift otherwise I would have sent it back. It's made out of plastic (which makes it lighter than the other one). The holes it punches are slightly bigger than the other punch I have. I thought this would be a great tool to carry in my bag because it's small and I find myself not wanting to carry my more heavy duty portable punch. It's good for the value but it's not heavy duty to say the least. If you are going to do a lot of punching upgrade!
September 22, 2012
Sweet complement to desktop punch
My daughter got me excited about Circa/Arc notebooks when she brought home an Arc punch. But I wanted to get something smaller to use when I'm not at home.
The 1-2-3 punch is nicely designed, and the division of the pressure arm into three parts makes it easy to put even pressure on the 3 or 4 individual holes (or mushrooms) you are cutting out of your paper each time. I also *love* the guide that snaps to any of the standard Circa page dimensions, particularly since I like making my own 3x5 PDA notebooks, and I had to jury rig something to make it come out right with the Arc desktop punch.
Each of the pressure arms actuates and locks down individually, which is great if you don't need to use all the punches for your particular project. It also makes it easier to accommodate odd page sizes, say if you are creating custom covers from non-standard cards (like the souvenir Shakespeare postcards from England my daughter wanted to turn into a journal) The regular punch nipped out bits of card at the ends - so sad I didn't have the 1-2-3 punch when we did that project.
This punch does have the larger hole size, so pages turn more easily when compared to the original Circa punch or the Arc punch. The 1-2-3 punch can't handle much paper - it punches a single sheet like soft butter, two sheets like cold butter, three sheets with significant effort, and four sheets with a lot of effort (best if you can 'roll' the bar a bit so pressure is concentrated on one hole at a time). Didn't attempt five sheets, and am not sure five sheets would even slide into the restricted throat to reach the zone where the punch dies are housed.
The base has a 'hinge' at one end, so you don't have to take the entire base off to empty the little mushrooms (or risk showering the room with bits of paper). Just shake the punch with the 'hinged' end down, flip open the last inch of the base to empty the chamber straight into the receptacle of choice.
Great design details - hoping it will stand up over time!
April 20, 2012