Hand-cranked drill press

[William Adams]

Looking into getting one --- what do I need to know / look for?

I've been searching, but not finding much --- any link suggestions?

[george wilson]

How large a drill? A blacksmith's post drill is likely the most common type hand cranked drill to find on Ebay,but they may not be real cheap. There have been plenty of smaller hand crankers made,but the post drills are usually the ones I've seen come up for sale. They have a built in downfeed mechanism operated by a ratchet on top of the unit. If you get one,make sure the ratchet mechanism is intact. It is NO FUN trying to hand push a 1/2" drill hand cranked slowly through a steel plate.

[Gary Herrmann]

George has a good point. What are you looking to do with it? There are hand cranked DPs, beam drills, boring machines, post drills etc.

I've got a small hand cranked dp and a post drill. I prefer the post drill. It's a Buffalo forge 61R, but there are a lot of good ones out there.

[William Adams]

I want to drill small holes for hinges and other hardware mostly --- may use it for knifemaking eventually, but the big thing is making holes w/ more control than I'm managing w/ current tools (a hand-held electric drill and a Yankee-style screwdriver/drill).

[Bob Jones]

Try an egg beater drill. You will be surprised how easy it is to drill straight down due to the shape and positioning of your hands. The brand/ make does not matter too much.

[Isaac Smith]

I've owned a few of them, all of the Goodell Pratt or Millers Falls variety. Here are some closer looks at two of them.

Goodell Pratt No. 9 1/2 (http://www.blackburntools.com/articles/gp-9-half-bench-drill/index.html)

Millers Falls No. 226 (http://www.blackburntools.com/articles/mf-226-bench-drill/index.html)

[Jim Belair]

Jon Zimmer has this one http://www.jonzimmersantiquetools.com/tools/bench_drill.jpg It's tiny at 11 inches tall from the bench. I've been tempted by it but don't care for the idea of top crank feed vs side lever (seems like it would be very slow- maybe good for drilling metal). It would be more of a novelty for my shop but I really don't have room for it. Plus I don't have a feel for whether this is a good price or not since they don't come on the market much, as you've seen. His prices for things generally are on the high side in my opinion.

Jim B

[ray hampton]

this drill looks similar to a egg -beater with a stand addition

[William Adams]

Try an egg beater drill. You will be surprised how easy it is to drill straight down due to the shape and positioning of your hands. The brand/ make does not matter too much.

I have a ``Great Neck 42 Hand Drill'' which I didn't mention which gainsays that --- I've been thinking about getting a better one, but thought the non-portable tool would be more useful.

[Gary Herrmann]

For small hinges, I prefer pushdrills. If you're going to drill thru steel for bolsters, you want a post drill, or a geared shoulder drill. My DP is similar to what is on Zimmer's page.

[Zach Dillinger]

Jon Zimmer has this one http://www.jonzimmersantiquetools.com/tools/bench_drill.jpg It's tiny at 11 inches tall from the bench. I've been tempted by it but don't care for the idea of top crank feed vs side lever (seems like it would be very slow- maybe good for drilling metal). It would be more of a novelty for my shop but I really don't have room for it. Plus I don't have a feel for whether this is a good price or not since they don't come on the market much, as you've seen. His prices for things generally are on the high side in my opinion.

Jim B

I've got a little drill like that one as well. Tried to sell it at a MWTCA meet and couldn't give it away. Works good though. I haven't had a need for it since I bought my big post drill from a Donnelly auction. I can't say I'm a huge fan of the manual feed crank on the little drill, but for wood its ok.

[John Coloccia]

Hey William, don't you have any electricity in your shop? Why not just get drill press? There are some nice, old drill presses that can be had for not much money and they'll do everything you need them to do.

[Tony Zaffuto]

Looking into getting one --- what do I need to know / look for?

I've been searching, but not finding much --- any link suggestions?

If you buy one on "_ bay", you'll pay an arm & a leg for shipping! If you're looking for a post drill, check Craigslist, for example, you're in PA (as I) and I just did a search on Pittsburgh Craigslist for "drill press" and several came up. One was for $100 (Champion) that looked pretty nice. In your neck of the woods, I would suspect post drills are fairly common, but might be snatched quickly by Amish.

[Jessica Pierce-LaRose]

Unless the price is super right, make sure you can inspect anything well before you hand over money. I've come across two that were "lovingly restored", by which the seller meant they had done a really nice job of repainting it with professional paint, including painting in all sorts of places paint was never supposed to be, making the thing totally non-functional. I don't know what they used, but it was fairly tough, and I'd rather restore rust then try and get that stuff off of bearing surfaces.

[Michael Ray Smith]

I have a Millers Falls 210 that I really enjoy.

[William Adams]

Managed to score a nifty little one off the extremely Big AuctionY site:

246394

Came w/ a (green) wooden base which lets it clamp up in my workmate clone quite nicely --- add a chunk of plywood w/ a notch in it and 3 scraps of wood and 2 clamps and instant drill press table.

The column is a ~ 13/32" metal rod which I wonder about extending --- of course it probably makes more sense to just rotate the spindle 90 degrees and use the workmate surface as the table...

No documentation unfortunately and the only stampings I can find are:

MADE IN GERMANY and FOREIGN

and

and what looks like

440/2
0

and a seal or symbol which might be a stylized tree in a circle (picture w/ flash isn't clear so will try tomorrow in the sun).

Presumably the above means Germany, before WWII for the export market?

[Andrae Covington]

Neat. Possibly made by Metro Tool Works or Solar of Germany. Their eggbeater drills show up sometimes on ebay, etc, and both used that green color. I haven't been able to find any information about either manufacturer, or reliable dates of production (just wild guesses). I have seen a different model of bench hand drill that is definitely stamped Metro Tool Works; it has a horizontal hand wheel at the top.

[William Adams]

Thanks! I'll have to ask my sister (who has a master's degree in German and is fluent) to keep an eye out for information about those company names. Unfortunately the photo in the sun didn't work out any better so will have to try something else if anyone is curious.

[William Adams]

Missed a modern / new option for metal:

http://www.micromark.com/microlux-tapping-fixture,8363.html