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Unknown (to me) chain drill

Boringgeoff

Plastic
Joined
May 12, 2019
Hi all, I've got this unbranded chain drill which I hope someone can enlighten me about. The chuck looks very similar to the Russell anti friction chuck (US Pat 1,018, 008 Feb 20 1912) based purely on the shape of the jaws. The chuck is quite large, a tad under 2" in diameter and 2 1/2" long and takes up to 1/2" bits.
Two gears on the shaft can be locked together or held apart, the gear nearest the chuck has an internal thread that matches the shaft while the other gear is smooth inside and keyed to the shaft. When the two are locked together by the small gear above them the shaft cannot advance or retract. The flat washer under the knurled nut has a flat machined on one side to allow the keyed cog to be moved and held in or out of gear.
I'm sorry if I haven't explained it very well.
Cheers,
Geoff.
 

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As chain drills are sometimes used in confined spaces (excavations) I suspect the geared complications are someone s idea of an improvement.....cant see any necessity .But then Im not a plumber or gasfitter.
 
The one most frequently encountered in Aus' seems to be the Millers Falls with clutch drive. Very handy if you're boring a hole up a windmill tower or a pole, where you've got to try to hang on and force the bit at the same time.
 
Just to be clear, in case John and my comments have caused any confusion, this is not an Australian tool, I bought it on eBay from USA.
Cheers,
Geoff.
 
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I've managed to understand how the mechanism works. When the two gears, the keyed and the threaded are locked together by the wide gear sitting above, I previously stated that the shaft can't advance....wrong!
In use, drilling this piece of steel, the chuck was clearly advancing even though the two gears are locked. The reason is they have a different number of teeth, the keyed 26 and the threaded 27, meaning that each turn of the brace advances the threaded gear by one tooth, then every 26 turns the chuck is advanced one thread width.
Genius piece of engineering, doesn't get me any nearer to the manufacturer though.

Cheers,
Geoff.
 

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Ratbldr and Peter, thanks very much for that info, especially the link to the Fowler machine, which seems to me exactly the same concept. I've had a quick look at that thread but I'll go back and read it more carefully later.
What this tells me is that the two different rate gears has been around since at least 1862, which probably predates my tool by several decades, since the earliest patents for chain drills I have seen are from the mid 1890's.
Thanks again.
Cheers,
Geoff.
 
Apologies for reviving this thread. I'm no closer to finding a maker of this tool than I was in December. If anyone could give an opinion on the origins of the chuck, (photos in the original post) disregarding the rest of the tool, may be of assistance. As previously mentioned the chuck is similar to US Pat 1,018,008 of Feb 20 1912 by Ross M. Russell. He assigned his patent to the Russell Anti-friction Drill Chuck Company of Elmira New York. Any clues?
Cheers,
Geoff.
 








 
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