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Buffalo Forge Post Drill No. 616 Third Wheel?


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So I bought a 616 last week for $23 and it needs  a little work sure, but in looking at it I noticed that there was a third drive shaft with no gear on and didn't seem necessary and now looking online I see a third gear in this spot. Its not the gear attached to the flywheel and its not the big gear attached to the main shaft which has the handle through it. So what is this small gear for. Would like to restore it but not going any farther until I know Im not beating my head against a brick wall.

Thanks in advance for your time....

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  • 3 weeks later...

  This is a video of a 616 in action.  The handle is the drive of it all and has a combination bevel gear/straight gear/cam on the same shaft that I will call 1.  The straight on 1 powers a pinion on the end of the shaft that spins the flywheel for inertia.  The bevel on 1 spins the chuck.  The cam on 1 bumps a lever, which pecks at that top "sawtooth" gear, which turns a screw that applies pressure, feeding the chuck and bit down through your work.

  All post vices I've seen work on the same principle, but I've only seen about 5 myself.  If there is another gear that's supposed to be there, I don't even know what it would do.

  TLDR version: The following are the functions you should see:

    1)Bevel spinning the chuck to cut.

    2)Flywheel for inertia while cutting.

    3)Sawtooth feeding the chuck and bit into the steel.

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  • 1 month later...

According to the Buffalo forge catalog the 616 is a two speed drill. The shaft with the gear missing had a small gear on it similar to the small drive gear on the middle shaft. The gear you're missing was built to install the hand crank through it similar to the large gear where I assume your hand crank is now installed. I also have a 616 but am not only missing the "third gear" but missing the feed linkage also. Looks like a guy needs to find 616's missing other pats to get the parts needed, oh well. Good Luck! 

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Hi. I feel sure that post drill in the video Jerome posted isn't a Buffalo Forge No.616. It looks to me more like their No.611 model - and I think I can see the "11" beside the crank gear at 16s-20secs.

 

The No.616 is in Buffalo Forge Co. cat. No.801 (1929).

 

As Bstrong says, it's a two-speed drill. Regular speed is obtained by cranking the large "crank gear". Low speed is obtained by moving the crank handle to the (missing) small crank gear that meshes with the flywheel gear.

 

But then as some wag pointed out on another forum - all these drill are hand cranked, so they're all variable speed anyway. The speed just depends on how much toast you had for breakfast...

 

Cheers,  Vann.

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  • 1 month later...

Anyone ever heard of a No.147 it looks nearly identical to the 616 and yet I cannot find anything about the drill.

Having just one speed, your No.147 looks more like a No.611.

 

It would seem that Buffalo Forge changed their numbering system at some point - probably around the 1900s - to a system that tells you the drill size. E.g. a No.611 drills to the centre of an 11 inch circle; a No.612 drills to the centre of an 12 inch circle; and a No.614 drills to the centre of an 14 inch circle. But a No.61 doesn't drill to the centre of a 1 inch circle - go figure !!

 

What is the capacity of your No.147?

 

Cheers,  Vann.

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