Chicago Pneumatic Rock Drill

Hello All!
I just purchased an antique Chicago pneumatic One-Man hard rock mining drill that was used is Michigan's copper mines in the early 1900s. I cannot seem to find any info on it anywhere and was hoping maybe someone here could point me in the right direction. I know its not a machine tool per se, however CP is a pretty well known brand and I was hoping someone could help me out. There are four characters cast into the drill case and i believe they read 5008 but I am not certain I have attached a picture as well.
Thanks!,
Matt

Welcome to the forum Matt,
You might try looking through some of the Chicago Pneumatic literature on archive.org or on the Hathi Trust site.
Internet Archive Search: Chicago Pneumatic

Full-text Search Results | HathiTrust Digital Library
There are also several mining related magazine on those sites that may have something if you search the sites and within the magazines or books.
There are some other rock drill images posted in posts 90 and 95 of this thread although I don't know that they are Chicago Pneumatic
https://www.practicalmachinist.com/...67/index5.html?highlight=Bancroft#post2196677
Ingersoll Rand also made Rock drills similar to these .
If you can't find and Chicago Pneumatic you may get a general idea from these.
Ingersoll-Rand Company : New Ingersoll Rock Drills : Ingersoll-Rand Co. : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

Internet Archive Search: Ingersoll Rand
Regards,

Jim

I think Chicago Pneumatic and Consolidated Pneumatic were the same ,one in US one in UK......I have lots of rockdrills ,and some new rods too.....best for drilling are the solid type with a carbide insert (Sandvik Coromant).........usually second hand ones are worn out ......first part to go is the rotation ,a rifle rod and pawl system rotates the drill rod .........There are all sorts of strict laws now about dust from drilling ,and its all done with wet flushing now ,to avoid dust......The lever on the side of the drill body is for air flushing without hammering............Hint ...dont drill soil ,your rod will get stuck in the hole.

Rock drills are quite easy to overhaul. Soak the fasteners in some penetrating oil and unscrew the side rods. The internals will just come right out at that point. There are two main parts to a rock drill - the lower section with the chuck, piston, rifle bar, etc. and the top-end which is mostly air handling. There are only a couple of o-rings and soft seals in most rock drills, and you can probably get something suitable at a good hardware store if the one you want can't be ordered.

I like to run everything through an ultrasonic cleaner with full-strength Simple Green. If you leave the castings in for a few hours, you'll get all of the paint off as well.

Any corrosion on the working parts can be removed with some fine emery cloth. Test the piston/bore fit by dropping the piston down the bore with the end capped off. You should feel a noticeable air cushion. If not, there won't be a lot of power. Pistons can be replaced and some cylinders have replaceable liners that can be pressed in. You can also send the cylinder out for honing and re-plating at a motorcycle shop.

The main wear parts are the chuck (you can mic it between the flats or get a chuck gauge from Crowder Supply) and the rifle bar and rifle nut (the rotation parts).

I like Krylon Industrial "Tough Coat," but any paint will do for the outside. Just make sure to mask off the threads, cylinder bores, etc. before painting.

A coat of paint sort of acts like an "hour meter" for big air tools. The amount of paint left gives you an idea of how much it's been used since the last overhaul.

If you want to fire it up, you'll need a big air source or a shop compressor with a large tank. They consume 120-180cfm at 90psi. Make sure you put some oil down the air intake of the drill and put a steel in the chuck before running it so you don't ruin the drill.

Arclight

Also, you can get all of the CP documentation at the CP Print Shop site:

Chicago Pneumatic Print Shop