This press works great for punching stitching holes in leather. I am using a 1.5mm hole punch on about 5oz veg tanned leather. Once I got the stroke distance adjusted and the air pressure adjusted it worked like a champ. The punch activates using the foot pedal only. For safety reasons, adjusting the stroke distance so a finger can't get between the work piece and the die is paramount, unless you want a hand injury. It also aids in know where the punch or die will strike the work piece to have the settings as close as possible. Adjusting the air pressure allows the die to only penetrate through the work piece and not go to deep into the cutting board. The only drawback is the leather not releasing from the die on the up stroke, so you manually have to force the work piece off the die, but that is not uncommon with hand tools either to have to pull the punch out of the leather. This punch takes so much less time then by hand, but hey that is what automation does. I added a magnetic work light to the machine that also helps see the work piece better.