A Bronze Hand Drill I Made

george wilson

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I had posted this before,but it seems to have gotten lost in the shuffle. I'll re post it for those who have not seen it.

A few of these type drills,made as one offs by the user,are still floating about in collections. These were never commercially made as far as I know. They vary widely in design. I'd like to make one with "Lantern pinion and round toothed gear"( I have forgotten the proper name for these gears!) The large gear has round teeth which mate with small vertical steel bars in the "lantern" pinion. THAT would be fun to make them mate up smoothly. Yet,these round gears are discussed in the Moore book on "Precision Hole Location",or on the Connely book,which I am glad to have original copies of.

I did not copy any existing drill to make this,though it is made along 19th. C. lines. I prefer to design my own creations myself. I was PAID to copy old tools as Toolmaker in Williamsburg,though. This drill was made at home in the evenings.

The main body follows the shape of the large gear. I might some day re make the handle shape,as I'm not sure if I still like the ball shape at the top.

This drill was made in about 1982 for a wealthy collector in California. And,I mean wealthy. He had a LARGE warehouse of antique tools and several cars. He had planned to establish a museum of his tools. He stayed at his business for too many years though,and just got too old and too tired. Recently,he visited Williamsburg and asked me if I'd like to have the drill back. I replied that I could not afford it! He said that he would just give it back to me from gratitude for our long relationship,over which I made several tools for him. He was dispersing his vast collection.

He had a MINT model T ford that I had seen. He had it on a trailer behind his car,went into a cafe for coffee. In that short time thieves had taken the model T and the trailer! He said it was not insured,and was no doubt in Mexico by now. A sad loss! Los Angles(sp?) is not a place I would want to live!!!!! A friend saw his girl friend walked up to and shot in the head and killed by some gang member who was probably told to kill someone as part of his initiation. She was in another car several cars ahead of him. Who needs to live with that?

The most technical part of making the drill is,of course,on making MATING GEARS for the large and the small
bevel gears. But,my main concern was the design of the drill,and the moldings on the large gear.

The chuck is a simple chuck with a 1/4" hole in it,and a thumb screw to tighten bits. I need to make a set of bits for it,but of course,this drill was not meant to be used, though it is perfectly functional. I need to make a case for it and the bits,too.

The drill is about 14" long(without going out to the shop and measuring it).

The handle is East Indian rosewood. I ought to change it to Brazilian rosewood or ebony.

I showed 2 images of the full drill because in the small pictures provided in the "file",I could not tell which one would show the moldings the best on the large gear.

I'm afraid that over the years,the drill has rather been "polished to death". It's frame could stand a re surfacing to get the surfaces nice and flat again.

Again,the "self focusing,focuses on nothing" camera problem!

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