The Post Drill - one of the greatest hand tools ever made...

[Alan DuBoff]

Ever heard of a champion #96 post drill? I Accidentally bought a post drill this fall at an auction when I thought they were selling the post vise right next to it! The plank it was screwed two has "No.96" painted at the top and the drill has cast on its frame "champion forge & blower lancaster pa." & "warranteed everydrill" but no # that I could find. It looks similar to the pictures I've seen of a #98 but it has a gear and support arrangement over the side bevel gear and the handle can be moved to two different posts to drive the different gears. I tried searching Google web & books but didn't come up with much.

Yes, not only have I heard of the 96, I have some info in the copy of the 1909 catalog I have.

This is what it says in the catalog:

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No. 96 Champion Quick Screw Return Self-Feed Post Drill

No. 96 Champion Quick Screw Return Self-Feed Post Drill has three
back gears with double journal bearings ground out of the solid metal.
Two speeds, Crank turns in same direction on both speeds, The screw
quick return is handled by an automatic lever. Drill to center of 15 1/2"
circle. Spindle bored like Champion "Patented" Never Slip Drill Chuck (see
page 25) for 1/2" straight shank bits, if specially ordered board for
41/64-inch bits. Drills holes up to 1 1/4 inches.

No. 96 Champion Quick Screw Return Self-Feed Drill. Wt.
135 lbs. .................................................. .$ 12.50
Extra for Power............................................$ 3.00
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I would say it's a much larger, and better vise than mine, which weighs 80 lbs. I wanted mine for the small size though...You can swap the handle onto the other gear to change the speeds, it's a manual process to change speeds by moving the handle.

Could be similar to this one I will attach, which belongs to Ron Reil, but I don't know the model of Ron's post drill (this one, he has about 3 or 4 of them I think).

[Will Krautkramer]

Thanks for the info. I 'll have to get a table fab'd up for it. I was thinking of using an old lathe face plate with t-slots. It has the "fork" for the table but is missing the table itself. Besides the missing table the only other problem I've noticed with it is a broken mounting boss for the weighted handle I think is part of the feed mechanism. I was disappointed with my stupid mistake at the auction and having to haul it a mile back to my car but after I looked it over it a lot nicer than the others I have.

Here are some pics of my two smaller post drills. I think the larger one is another champion, its missing its table to. I found the smaller one at the scrap yard a few years ago. Some one had it all wrapped up in a sheet. It always amazes me to see the things people scrap out!

[Gary Herrmann]

Will, I saw a champion table for sale on the bay just now. 260338865096

[harry strasil]

I have 3 or 4 post drills, the smallest is about 12 inches total lengthfrom top to bottom and is top fed by a small hand screw, I have my grandfathers humongous one that takes at least 2 men to pick up, that he converted to line shaft power, and a couple of in between ones.

My son in law just gave me another one awhile back, and a friend who goes to a lot of hardware store auctions, brought me a brand new one with the store tag on it yet. It when to a smith friend for his demo shop for $50.

I also have several styles of Wheelwrights tire bolt drills. this is the latest one. from my Son in Law. It uses taper shank drill bits.



You can see my old demo drill in the background here.

[Alan DuBoff]

Harry,

This is way cool, is this the tire bolt drill? Was this designed for wooden tire/wheels? That is cool, looks like you could fit it into a spoke and drill a hole.

I never get tired of seeing your demo stuff, nice setup!

[Bill Houghton]

there was a company still making a tool very similar to the drill Harry posted. I can't recall the name (hey, I'm 60 - give me credit for remembering seeing the catalog pics of the tool!); the company was marketing it as a farmer's drill, for fence and outbuilding repair.

I imagine the company has by now stopped production; farmers, except for Amish and others who eschew electricity, having surely long since gone to cordless drills and portable generators.

Kind of amazing, really, how late some of the 19th century's technological wonders held out.

[harry strasil]

Yes, Alan it was designed to drill thru the iron tire so you could put tire bolts thru the wooden felloes to help hold the iron tire on.

Bill you are thinking of the Cole Drill and I think they are still made and duplicated by other Co's too. I have 2 of them an original and a knock off.

http://www.rustyiron.com/engines/coledrill/

http://www.oldengine.org/members/levans/colevise/

[Bruce Volden]

My wife's uncle died and at the estate auction I just have to have this post drill
Back in the '50's I remember my grandpa had one on his wall in the tractor shop.
I "played" with that thing for hours on end! What a marvel I thought, how do people
think of such things?
I searched the internet and found that this one was made prior to 1908.
I also noticed that EVERY one of these seems to have come with the attaching board
made of white oak-nifty.
Thinking of putting a J-chuck on it.
Comments?

Bruce

[Tony Zaffuto]

Good old thread! Still have the same post drills mentioned in my response to the OP. My working habits are different today, howver: that was a time period of doing without electrons being sacrified. Today, power tools are used to do the heavy lifting.

[Dave Cav]

Take a look at all the pictures here:

http://www.vintagemachinery.org/mfgi...tail.aspx?id=8

and see if you can figure out how to fabricate a replacement part. Most of the old post drills were very similar. Chances of finding a replacement part are slim to none.