A hand-held punching machine is manually operated and works by squeezing together the handles much in the same way as you would use a pair of pliers.
When the handles are squeezed together the internal mechanisms cause the punch to be pushed upwards.
The punch is forced through the material you are punching and into the cavity of the die.
Releasing the handles (which are typically spring loaded) withdraws the punch from the die cavity. If your handles are not spring loaded then you will have withdraw the punch by opening the handles manually.
The resulting hole in your material should be neat and tidy, and the scrap piece of material (slug) should fall out of the die.
