This Quick Tip teaches you how to install a roll pin when you don’t have a starter punch. 

Roll pins are designed to expand when inserted. What happens is the pin doesn’t want to stay in the hole it was designed for and you have trouble fitting it all the way in if you’ve lost or broken your starting punch. If you had three hands it would be easy. But for all our two-handed friends, this is what we do to shrink down the pin so it sits in the hole and you can guide it the rest of the way with a hammer or other tool.