Old post drill question or two

Cleaned up pretty well, still a lot of original paint.
Only see a couple marks, pd 1 and pd 10, probably just Post Drill part numbers. Maybe a Western out of Milwaukee?

Question is how does the drill advance? Handle at top is just to hold while you crank. When I crank it with the pin out, it does seem to advance very slowly, just from the drill spinning independently?

After looking at this a bit more over the weekend I see that it advances with every rotation of that coupler. Still not sure exactly how it works, but it's not a hard advance like I imagine the quill feed is (haven't seen one in action).

Is this an earlier model or just a less expensive way to go? No markings other than DP numbers makes me think this one was made for reseller.

Looks similar to one or two of the Silver, but no peck feed. There is one just like it right now on eBay, "no. 0-1/2" but otherwise I can't find any similar to ID who made it.

I can save you a lot of time, especially if you share your abode with a woman.
You are NOT going to hang that heavy filthy thing on the living room wall!

I know this because even though I owned the paid off house before she who dreamed of being obeyed came along, and I paid way too damn much money for that "hunk of crap" at an auction. My sole victory getting something into the house was my $7.50 Niagara cyclo massage chair. It too had been declared "crap" too ugly to be in the room with her Pennsylvania House couch. My live edge slab tables only survived along with my King Iron Bridge nameplate because they were too heavy for her to move. The chair sat on a trailer for 17 nights in the dooryard covered by a giant baggie and tarp and I enjoyed my coffee after supper each of those nights vibrating after climbing to my chair.

Since then, the chair has been in my living room covered by a slip cover since she never got around to recovering it. Chair works fine.

I tell you this because even if your drill is declared clean enough to be in an operating room by 3 scrub nurses, it AIN'T coming in the house. (Between just us, the drill is probably too heavy to hang on a standard house wall anyhow) Mine remains in a storage trailer largely because it's way heavier than it looked when I was bidding on it.

From memory many post drills only advance the quill when in proper orientation.

Franz© said:

From memory many post drills only advance the quill when in proper orientation.

Click to expand...

Ratchet feed usually. One impulse per revolution. And usually the pawl counts on gravity.

Not continuous "geared feed."

Joe in NH

The method mine uses is that the wheel on top (I think you called yours a "handle"), rotates and the thread in your second pic pushes the drill down. The wheel has ratchet teeth on top. A cam on the crank wheel moves a lever with a pawl at the top, which advances the wheel, usually with a choice of one to 3 or 4 teeth per turn.

Yours does mot show that, or at least none of the pics show the top wheel. And I see no ratchet arm.

Better pics from more angles would probably show mounting places for the arm and other parts.

Example:

You can see the arm, the cam, and the pawl in this picture The pawl is disengaged in the pic, it would be flipped over toward the post to use the "power feed".

Franz© said:

You are NOT going to hang that heavy filthy thing on the living room wall!

Click to expand...

Funny. Mine is going in the garage workshop. Wife didn't like my modern cherry computer desk, so it was in storage until I used the top to make a work bench. It's the bench in the photos.

JST said:

The method mine uses is that the wheel on top (I think you called yours a "handle"), rotates and the thread in your second pic pushes the drill down. The wheel has ratchet teeth on top. A cam on the crank wheel moves a lever with a pawl at the top, which advances the wheel, usually with a choice of one to 3 or 4 teeth per turn.

Yours does mot show that, or at least none of the pics show the top wheel. And I see no ratchet arm.

Better pics from more angles would probably show mounting places for the arm and other parts.

Click to expand...

First I want to clarify something. The drill bit spins clockwise, but the threaded rod turns counterclockwise to advance the drill bit. So ignore what I said earlier. Not paying close enough attention.

The wheel (handle) at the top is screwed to the frame, doesn't move and has no teeth. You can see it in the new photos. As it is, the only way to advance the drill bit is to take the pin out of the threaded rod and turn it counter clockwise by hand.

Seems obvious that there was more to this post drill, but I don't see what it could be. No places that I see to attach a feed mechanism.

I posted a reply with a few more pics, but as a newbie I think it needs time to be approved by a mod.

Meanwhile here's a link to a very similar post drill I found on eBay. Can't find any others anywhere.

ANTIQUE No -1/2 88 CAST IRON BEAM WALL POST BLACKSMITH DRILL PRESS OLD TOOL | eBay

This isn't my sale, I am not selling mine. Just an example of very similar post drill.

Could be yours is a hand feed only model, which the link appears to be as well.

The handwheel at the top would be turned to feed the drill. Yours, if it does not turn, may just be jammed, because you definitely have the feed screw and that wheel should turn the screw and feed the drill.

JST said:

Could be yours is a hand feed only model, which the link appears to be as well.

The handwheel at the top would be turned to feed the drill. Yours, if it does not turn, may just be jammed, because you definitely have the feed screw and that wheel should turn the screw and feed the drill.

Click to expand...

Not sure if my photos didn't post or are in limbo, but that wheel at the top is screwed to the frame. But what you said got me wondering if maybe there was a bigger wheel above that one that sheared off the threaded rod. If it did, it was a very clean break.


So mahbe it originally loomed imilar to this one:

Photo Index - Boynton & Plummer - Pillar Drill - self-winding chuck size 3/4 inch No 22 | VintageMachinery.org

Ok, editing for my own stupidity. Looks like that wheel at top will turn. Maybe not ever on mine, but not for lack of trying

I looked closer at it, and where I thought was a place to grease the threads is actually to grease an inner sleeve the wheel attaches to.

Thanks for the help! And sorry I just wasn't on the ball. Too many assumptions on my part.