Almost followed me home

[Agita]

Wen't down to a flea-market and found some shop that specialized in old tools.

$39 for a unused flatter. Don't know the name but had a symbol like a arrow. Green paint but not a marr on the surface very old looking.
(just wanted to get an idea if that is too much, was to my first impression)

Had a drill press there for what I took as an amazing price. Was freed up but had no chuck or the hand cranking bit. No markings painted green. apparantly a long time ago.
Found a picture online but don't know if it's ok to post a pick thats not my own. looks like on of the buffalo drill presses that are hand cranked, but the only thing that turns it is the 12" round thin wheel. (for a belt??)

Also I saw no adjustable bit on the top like I've seen on others.

$50$ for the drill itself. Will I be able to find a way to turn it by hand? Good buy ? What kind of chuck would I need.


If its ok to post a pick I'll edit it and circle the bits that are missing or diffrent.

Thanks in advance.

[ThomasPowers]

Well most modern smiths don't use flatteners much---these days you are more likely making up dies to put texture on a piece than to remove it. Some knifemakers use them but hammer control is a whole lot faster and easier in my opinion. So to me that was way too high---I've bought a couple for around US$5 a piece just to have in the rack for "what if" cases.

The old hand crank drills had a standard size hole in their "chuck" and the drillbits all had a section *that* size that fit in it and were held with a set screw/bolt. They are fairly easy to retrofit a jacobs chuck too---find a chuck that will take a bolt the same size as the hole and cut off the head of the bolt and slip it in the drill's chuck.

Now as to missing pieces---they don't make replacement pieces; anything you need you will have to make yourself or cannibalize off another one. If you are not familiar with them they can be hard to judge wear on them too!

Whatever you do please don't run it off a motor! I once met a knifemaker at the guild show who told me that he tried to save some money by motorizing a hand crank drill and one day he was drilling a tricking piece and reached up to advance the drill bit and fed his fingers into the gears. After quite a lot of very expensive hand surgery and months of down time when he couldn't work and two years more of healing they still didn't work right and as he said "I could have bought the fanciest most expensive drillpress on the market and it would have still cost me only a small fraction of what I spent in medical bills"

The old machinery doesn't have the guards like the new stuff has.