Old pillar drill

Mike brought in an interesting old hand powered pillar drill today. It is about 2 feet high, with two gear ratios and a variable downfeed. The downfeed puts pressure on the drliibit as you work through an adjustable slipping clutch which we don't really understand. There is a flywheel at the top of the drill which starts turning as the drill bit hits the work, the red adjuster is on the left and on the right, the other red part is a greaser/oiler. The Jacobs chuck is not original, and the spindle nose has been modified to a Jacobs taper to fit it. It was rescued from some scrap in the 80's by Mikes father. Some wording on parts appears to be in German, but the label fitted is from a Bristol company.

Any information would be appreciated.

The flywheel has a female thread inside it. The spindle has a male thread outside it.

If the flywheel and spindle rotate at the same rpm, no downfeed occurs. If the spindle goes faster than the flywheel, downfeed occurs. The adjusting knob allows you to regulate the 'slip' between the two parts. For a small drillbit, you loosen it so they try to rotate together. For a large drillbit, you tighten it so downfeed pressure is increased. For a really big bit or a bit that is blunt, you have to apply braking pressure to the flywheel with your hand.

I have two machines that work on similar principles. Even with the adjuster completely loose, with small bits, the feed is sometimes too fierce.

When withdrawing the bit, you have to do so slowly so as to be careful not to let the two threads top out and jam together. If you spin too fast in reverse, next time you go to drill a hole, you will turn the handle for a week and no downfeed will happen as the flywheel and spindle are tight together. Again, to remedy this, you have to grasp the flywheel while turning the handle to loosen the jam and initiate the downfeed

Could it be using a car differential type arrangement?

Hi, this interest me , because few years back I bought an old smallish drill(Green), different like this one build, but the same flywheel on top and pressure on the drillbit with an adjustment on the side.
It took me some time to figure out how it worked. I still has to get back at it to see if I can make the adjustment more reliable. Theoretically it should not break a thin drill with correct adjustment. The trick is in the flywheel slip & pressure & the connection to the downshaft threads and difference in speed between flywheel and shaft to force it down with thread or not. It seems this one although different build uses the idea for pressure on bit.
I was just at the right 2nd hand place at the right time.

We thought that the threads, one of which is a fast helix would work together to provide the downfeed as the spring load adjuster with a bronze tip appears to push against the sleeve with the threads and is what prevents it freewheeling. We have not dismantled the machine to be sure how it works but having comformation of our guesses is helpful. I would not like to drill holes smaller than 1/8" with it. The adjuster applies friction to the flywheel which has the fast helix inside it with the main spindle screwed into it and the spindle is free to decend until the bit hits the work. That explains why the flywheel stays still at first. A rather clever design, not an automatic feed like a lathe has at all. I used to have a Stanley hand drill which had exactly the same design of two gear ratios.

There is a YT video of a very similar one here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r1bO_MfWs8Y

You can put 'ixion drill press' into Google and look at images.

They did a very similar two-speed model but in 'egg beater' format.

More:

https://www.holzwerken.de/museum/hersteller/ixion.phtml

https://www.flickr.com/photos/gullabyan/44575091505

Edited By DC31k on 26/04/2023 20:39:43

I would think that when you break through and stop winding, the spinning flywheel would withdraw the spindle as it slows down. I must try it out again tomorrow. Also check that the spindle is keyed to the bottom bevel gear with a long slot for drive and axial movement.

Hi old mart, I bought a second hand one of a very similar design several years ago and refurbished it, but I gave it to my son-in-law a few months ago.

There are photos of the parts 2 Speed Auto Hand Drill

This photo below is an improvement I made and fitted to a larger single speed drill with the same type of down-feed to the drill, the design of the improvement is from ME issue April 20 1939, and designed by E. J. Szlumper, he designed because these machine had a habit to break small drill bits because it was not possible to reduce the friction enough on the flywheel. The improvement works very well indeed.

Regards Nick.

Way back I had a cheaper single speed version with no friction adjustment that looked very much like the one Nicholas had. Maybe labeled Champion.

Either 1/4" or 3/8" capacity with a simple "three cones and springs" type chuck as used on ordinary hand drills of that era. Cleaned it up painted it red and black, as you do, before rapidly selling it on as turning the handle seemed too much like hard work. I don't recall any drill breaking issues but there was definite drill size related sweet spot for speed for best drilling performance.

Clive

I have one the same as Nick's first example, but without any formal lower table, so just attached to a length of substantial U channel.
It has a countersink bit permanently fitted to save changing bits on the pillar or bench drills.

I also added a horizontal bar, a lump of square section cast Iron I had.
This slides up and down the main column with a simple locking lever.
One end sports a reamed ½" vertical hole, housing a spindle with a drill chuck, and a square machined on the top end for a tap wrench.

I can now use it for countersinking a hole, and then tapping it true and vertical.

Bill

Hi Clive. my father had one like the one I put the improvement on, and I can remember him having to spin the flywheel with his left hand when using small drills to prevent them breaking, and it would start to bend a 1/8" / 3mm drill if you didn't stop drilling and let the flywheel catch up, or spin it with your left hand. The photo below shows the one I fitted the improvement to, my father's one is still in its original condition, although I did stripe it all down, cleaned and repainted and reassembled it.

Regards Nick.

Edited By Nicholas Farr on 26/04/2023 22:51:19

I took some more pictures, and the two views of the mechanism show the spindle at the top and also extended. The long keyway which takes the drive from the bevel gear is visible in the second, and the quick helix visible in the first when the spindle decends. The thrust race inside the drill is on the flywheel spindle which has the adjustable tension pad on it just above.

I forgot to add the photo's to the album before posting, bear with me,

Edited By old mart on 27/04/2023 20:31:16

Edited By old mart on 27/04/2023 20:33:06

Edited By old mart on 27/04/2023 20:36:57

Hi Nick,

There was an article in ME, I think possibly in the 1970s on adding a spring device like what sits above the flywheel in your photos.

John

I have an old 'Union' bench drill with a ratchet self - feed. Most of them that have survived, allegedly have bent spindles but how that could happen baffles me. Mine seems to be OK. I have often thought of converting it for square - on tapping.