Acme post drill

[Shredneck666]

I have recently taken up blacksmithing. My father passed while i was setting up my forge. A couple weeks later my uncle invited me to his house. He gave a a heavy hand crank drill press that my dad had taken from my great grandpas place when he died. I gigured it would make a cool conversation peice in my new house. When i started researching i discovered that it was a post drill for blacksmithing.  Talk about fate. Lol. So i have cleaned up and got it in mostly working order. It might be antique. But i dont think i can break it. And might as well use it for what its meant for. Only problem is the threaded collar and all thread for the down feed are pretty worn. It slips completely through about four inches of the middle of the downfeed. And its all acme threads. If it isnt obvious im very proud of my post drill if you cant tell and want to fix it. So to make a long story short, where would be the best place to find parts. I considered machining new. But id like to stay original if possible.

[Frosty]

Welcome aboard, glad to have you. If you'll put your general location in the header you might be surprised how many of the Iforge gang live within visiting distance. If the feed screw is badly enough worn you may have to start hunting for another like yours for parts. This is a pretty common practice and hooking up with the blacksmith club in your area will put you in touch with tools parts, etc. There were a LOT of post drills made so parts are out there and I'm sure there's someone here who can give you good info.

You'll need to post some pics though and best of all, we LOVE pics.

Frosty The Lucky.

 

[ThomasPowers]

Saw a hand crank postdrill crossing the border this morning; it was on a trailer with a Nash Ambassador  restored and set up for a Pan American race (#112---wow got some history there with the Carrera Panamericana according to google!)  Didn't have time to chat with them about the drill as they were going through inspection on the MX side heading south.

[Kozzy]

Speaking of post drills, can anyone come up with something they do either much better than a good drill press or that you can't do with a modern drill press?  I know some have incredibly strong downfeed pressure systems but other than that, any compelling reason to have one around (other than old-school factor)?

The smaller versions are common as dirt around here but I've always passed..never saw a need (have a large geared-head do-all drill press plus 2 others already).  Just wondering if someone can justify taking a second look when I trip over a good looking post drill.  

[JME1149]

31 minutes ago, Kozzy said:

can anyone come up with something they do either much better than a good drill press or that you can't do with a modern drill press?

Don't need electricity to run a post drill.

[Kozzy]

11 minutes ago, JME1149 said:

Don't need electricity to run a post drill.

Ok, I'll buy that one.  Since I have been half-heartedly doing the "prepper" think at my home (not the crazy paranoid end, just making sure I have reasonable back-ups) your reasoning does make some sense to me.  Not sure it's a compelling reason to pick one up but at least it gives rise to thinking about it.

[matto]

With the slow speed and pressure you can put holes into pieces that you can't with a modern drill press.  Such as some spring steels

[ThomasPowers]

I knew a guy who crushed some fingers in the gearing of one---much harder to do that in a modern drill press!

[arftist]

On 4/20/2016 at 3:29 PM, Kozzy said:

Speaking of post drills, can anyone come up with something they do either much better than a good drill press or that you can't do with a modern drill press?  I know some have incredibly strong downfeed pressure systems but other than that, any compelling reason to have one around (other than old-school factor)?

The smaller versions are common as dirt around here but I've always passed..never saw a need (have a large geared-head do-all drill press plus 2 others already).  Just wondering if someone can justify taking a second look when I trip over a good looking post drill.  

Indeed one can drill large  holes in steel and as mentioned hard steel as well.

For example even with my 10 H.P. 15 speed #5morse taper powerfeed Fosdick I can only drill .375 holes in AR 400    unless I use a $100 solid carbide drill bit. 

With a $20 post drill .500 is no problem.

All about RPMs and downfeed pressure.

Does a modern machine shop warrant a post drill? Likely not, yet they are not obsolete either .

On 4/6/2016 at 3:39 PM, Shredneck666 said:

I have recently taken up blacksmithing. My father passed while i was setting up my forge. A couple weeks later my uncle invited me to his house. He gave a a heavy hand crank drill press that my dad had taken from my great grandpas place when he died. I gigured it would make a cool conversation peice in my new house. When i started researching i discovered that it was a post drill for blacksmithing.  Talk about fate. Lol. So i have cleaned up and got it in mostly working order. It might be antique. But i dont think i can break it. And might as well use it for what its meant for. Only problem is the threaded collar and all thread for the down feed are pretty worn. It slips completely through about four inches of the middle of the downfeed. And its all acme threads. If it isnt obvious im very proud of my post drill if you cant tell and want to fix it. So to make a long story short, where would be the best place to find parts. I considered machining new. But id like to stay original if possible.

1. You can break it easily. Drop it on concrete from waist height (yes I know this from experience)

2. All sizes of Acme thread rod are available.