Have you used one of these?

The punch point on the mini prism would be a handy thing not sure about the others.

That's like attaching a wooden handle to your EDM so you could use it as a hammer.

You know most spring tools that I have used transfer very little if any recoil back into the user so I’m not quite sure I get your analogy.

I have used a similar punch and agree the shock is less than you might expect.

The spring drives the moving punch inside at a high speed, but by the force you are applying to the body you essentially make the body part of the larger piece being stamped. Thus there is a large mass to absorb that momentum.

Much of the small shock you do feel is due to the later motion of the exterior shell of the tool as the spring resistance goes away and it hits at low speed into the rest of the tool.

You not the only one as I don't get it either. Maybe I'm just obtuse though.

Yeah...I think Dave is focusing in on the recoil of the spring in the center punch. The prism pole most likely absorbs that much shock, and more, daily as it is hauled from job to job.

When staking houses I have just been hubs and tacks for the last 25 years, what are you going to use a punch for on house corners? ?????ÿ

We pin the corners of the already poured footers for the masons to set up there guide poles on. Most of the houses that we do have a significant amount of elevation change with a lot of footer steps so it just makes it easier if we put a nail where the actually corner of the block goes. Also I find myself being a fat guy in waist deep footer that is only two to three feet wide fairly often, and trying to move the rod out of the way and set the nail can be difficult. My thought was if I could dimple where it goes then move the rod out of the way and then set the nail, it may make the process simpler.

One way to make a temporary mark at the bottom of a rod it to hit it with a spritz of spray paint, turning rod tip into a template  and setting the point at the apex of the paint shadow left behind. It takes some practice but once figured you can make an pretty good chain point that way. 

I have never used the center punch adapter, seems like it would be useful for stamping brass disks, for setting chain points on concrete it does not sound like a good solution to me. 

The paint idea is something that I have never thought of. I was looking at a product catalog for I think intergeo several years ago and seen a paint marker that was on a push plunger much like the punch. When ever you pushed down on the rod the marker would extend and make a dot. I was trying to find it when I found the punch, i bought a small automatic punch and am going to see how it does before buying the one for the rod. Just thought someone here may have tried it.

I used one once on a job were we were building a set of tracks inside a building.?ÿ They had attached large steel plated to the floor.?ÿ It worked fine to leave a mark in the steel, I haven't used it since.

Then just as you punch the steel, “oh wait, left 2”