The back stop on the Geka has a one meter bar bolted to the machine when it leaves the factory- this has a stainless steel rule (in inches) riveted right on it. There are two hand tightenable levers that move the stop in and out for the first three feet, and allow you to swivel it to line up with the round bar, square bar, angle, or sheet shear, so the same stop works with all of them.
All you do is slide it so the front of the big knurled collar is on, say, 18". Then lock it with the lever. Go to the other side, slide in the material, when it hits the stop, the shear works, the part drops, and you slide it in again- until your 20 footer is cut up, if thats what you need.
We have, hanging on the wall, the two extension bars- you can add one, or both, to extend for 78", or 117", cutting capacity. They fit right in, with one set screw needed to secure them.
The extensions have matching stainless steel rulers that go up- so you dont have to do any math- you want a 47 1/2" piece, you set the stop at 47 1/2".
The punch table has an x and a y bar. You slide the x bar back and forth, it has two locking knobs. The ruler on that table is set up to measure to the center of the hole- if you need a hole 3/4" from the edge, you set the back bar on 3/4"- its very intuitive.
Then, the y, on the right, goes out to 24". I think you can get extensions for that, too, but I never bothered. Again, stainless rules, you set it a the distance you want.
There are also adjustable stops on the notch station and the flat bar shear station, including miter adjustability for the shear.
I dont have a $20k dedicated punch, we have punched tens of thousands of holes with the ironworker.
Sure, if it needs to be very precise, I do it on the mill.
But bolt clearance holes is mostly ironworker territory, and the 1/16" clearance is just fine for that.
I like the sounds of the shop Jed works in, but I have a feeling he didnt pay for all them fancy tools himself.
Me, I did, so I go for quality, cause I hate fixing em and buying new ones. But compromise on space and money, too- and an ironworker is not as good as a big dedicated punch, but it works just fine for most punching.
My geka is a smaller one, which has a pivoting arm for punching, like the pirannhas or scotchmans. But the bigger machines from Geka that are two station machines, have vertical punching with a dedicated cylinder.
This vid, from Geka, shows the auto back stop for shearing at about 4:45. and the punch station with stops at 2:20 or so.
https://youtu.be/IvyDJpX-Kj0
Personally, I dont understand why all ironworkers dont have these features.