Not a boring machine!

[AndyT]

Some time around the 1850s, the Americans, who liked to make timber framed houses needing lots of mortices, came up with a clever idea. A drilling machine which held an auger in a little frame, so the user could keep it in place by sitting on it, and drive the bit with both hands. This was less tiring than a brace, and worked well, out in the electricity-free farmsteads.

Some of these machines survive, and are much loved by their owners.

I recently watched this one, by "Wranglerstar" in which he grins like a puppy all the way through, and already knew Roy Underhill's similar enthusiasm. (For example, in this video, about half way in.)

So when I saw one on eBay, buy it now, I was tempted.
But it was not nearby, and I didn't buy it.

But it didn't sell, and the vendor lowered the price even more!
Then two UKW members sent me messages about it, saying that they thought I would like it. So, Graham and Rodders, you are to blame! You wore down my resistance. :roll: You sent me on a pleasant day out in Winchester.

And so I now own this lovely thing:

I think, from a quick look online, that it is by Swan. It seems to be in reasonable nick, except that a latch is missing and there is a little bit of woodworm in the base.

I will post more pictures and show it getting back into working order, but I need to finish a chest of drawers first, so there may be a small delay... :wink:

 

[nathandavies]

Beautiful machine, will you be going to the electric free wilderness?

 

[bugbear]

Is that one of the kind with the automatic retract ?

BugBear

 

[AndyT]

Nathan - No - I like to listen to the radio while I work!

BB - Not actually automatic, but designed to be relatively easy to use. There is a vertical rack which is disengaged while you are drilling (so that the leadscrew can pull the bit into the wood). Then you swing the rack round so it engages, and turn the handles to lift the bit up and out of the hole.

 

[Sheffield Tony]

I like that. I've seen homemade contraptions for drilling holes at repeatable angles made by chairmakers ... this looks like a more serious version.

So what's the next WIP to be Andy ? I can't wait ...

 

[blackrodd]

AndyT, I'm really pleased that the machine is as good as it looked and is now in safe hands.
Looking forward to the fettling and polishing, which will, no doubt be just as interesting as you're other projects.
Regards Rodders

 

[AndyT]

Well, with my other project completed there seemed to be no reason not to crack on with this. I will mostly show pictures as there is nothing new or original about my restoration techniques.

A few more details of the machine show that it is basically sound (no missing parts except for the latch; no cracks in castings) but it does have some woodworm.

The worm is mostly in this little panel

and the seller included a bit of oak to replace it, which he had cut to size but not installed.

The metal parts have the familiar build-up of a gummy layer of old grease mixed with sawdust, and a tiny bit of superficial rust. I see no need for acid, electrolysis or aggressive abrasives. I do like my old tools to be clean and functional so I aim to keep it looking old but remove the dirt and grime.

Dismantling is easy, using a socket that fits the old square nuts.

The top is similarly held on with bolts and captive square nuts

In fact, the whole thing all came to pieces very easily. The old woodscrews were not rusted in and can all be re-used.

To get the gunk off the main casting, I sprayed it with degreaser, scrubbed it with a toothbrush and a stick, then rinsed off in hot water.

This may not look much different, but it's actually quite a lot cleaner

For the rest of the job, I turned to my bottle of magic 'reviver'.

This is a mixture of boiled linseed oil, turps, meths, vinegar and ammonia. It releases the dirt and grime and makes old dry wooden parts look cared for. But it also works well on metal. In a recent thread on chisels, Jacob mentioned using linseed oil, and when I restored my big old treadle lathe, I used quite a lot, to give it a protective coating. But on a little job like this I just use the reviver mixture.

So here it is, going onto the main casting, and getting a gentle rub with 00 wire wool which is enough to remove any superficial rust and remaining dirt.

And here are the rest of the metal parts, which were just dunked in it, wiped a bit, and cleaned off with paper kitchen towels.

Of course, the wood got the same treatment, though I had previously doused it in woodworm killer and left it to dry in the sun for a few hours. These two pieces show the immediate transformation from 'before' to 'after'.

So now I have a nice kit of parts to re-assemble. I need to cut some loose tongues to hold the replacement panel in place, so probably won't finish today. But I promise it won't take four months!

 

[blackrodd]

Very interesting stuff, I'm surprised that you got it apart without some difficulties.
Do you have any idea of the age of the machine?
Regards Rodders

 

[AndyT]

Very interesting stuff, I'm surprised that you got it apart without some difficulties.
Do you have any idea of the age of the machine?
Regards Rodders

Funny you should ask - I've just been doing a bit of searching.

A good place to start for something like this is http://www.datamp.org/ - a wonderful collaborative resource of tool related patents, mostly from the US. You can browse by category or search by name. If you start to look by Tool Type, choose "woodworking machines" as the class, "wood drilling and boring" as the category and "portable timber mortiser" as the type, you get a list of 54 patents for this sort of machine.
It's then a question of paging through the pictures until you find something resembling the one you want, bearing in mind that patent drawings did not always exactly match the tool that got made.

In this case, I'm pretty sure that the patent in question is this one, from a Samuel King in 1864, although it shows a fixed angle model. The new, patented aspect is the way that the rack pivots round and works against the edge of the vertical bevel gear. (Other models had a second gear for the raising and lowering.)

The Datamp entry leads to more information about the company who did the manufacturing, Lamson and Goodnow, and the information that they made these machines for only a few years, in the 1860s, so that is close enough for me.

What's really useful is that the patent drawing shows me the missing latch! I've not made that yet, but I have put the whole thing back together and had a go with it.

Here's my quick and dirty job on the replacement panel

and here is the whole thing.

I hope you agree that the nice black colour on the old metalwork is an improvement

But does it work?

Well, yes it does:

but it would be a lot easier to use if I had a full size beam to drill. Here I am trying to balance a little scrap about 8" long which is not enough to fit under the base. I shall keep an eye on the local skips and report back!

 

[Sheffield Tony]

Is the auger special, or will it accept other commonly available bits ? I can't quite make out how the bit is held from the picture, and it seems not to be in the photo of metal parts.

 

[AndyT]

Is the auger special, or will it accept other commonly available bits ? I can't quite make out how the bit is held from the picture, and it seems not to be in the photo of metal parts.

Slightly special - it's a 1/2" diameter round shaft at the top, with a little flat on it. The chuck is just a cylinder with a 1/2" hole and a setscrew which tightens on to the bit. I don't have any others like the one that came with it so I shall just limit myself to making 1" holes :lol: .

I've just rewatched the Wranglerstar videos on YouTube, and he goes into more detail about the bits.

I've also noticed that the setscrew on mine is not actually the hard to match American original but a nearly matching metric screw, forced in, which would not come out easily - but it moves in and out far enough to do its job, so I'll leave well alone.

 

[blackrodd]

Another fascinating read there Andy, and as you say a vast improvement on the machine from when you started.
An excellent sympathetic restoration, may I say, on the 150 years old tool, thanks for the pics too.
Regarding the drill bit, from what you described, any different sized bits will have to be with a 1/2" shank, or it would be off centre?
I went to Bude canal Thursday, with 'Er indoors and looking at the vast lock gates, mostly in Iroko, Thought how useful you're borer would have been in those days and on similar jobs.

https://www.waterways.org.uk/waterways/ ... l_overview
Regards Rodders

 

[DTR]

I recently watched this one, by "Wranglerstar" in which he grins like a puppy all the way through,

I got around two minutes through that video before I started feeling sick.

Looks like a fun tool though 8)

 

[Vann]

Slightly special - it's a 1/2" diameter round shaft at the top, with a little flat on it. The chuck is just a cylinder with a 1/2" hole and a setscrew which tightens on to the bit. I don't have any others like the one that came with it so I shall just limit myself to making 1" holes :lol: .

That's the same arrangement as my blacksmiths drills. In the process of acquiring 1/2" shank bits for my drills I've come across a couple with woodworking tips - including a screw. This won't work with my blacksmith drills as the drill feeds the bit, so any bit with a screw will result in the two feeds fighting each other.

If you PM me I'll part with them.

I've also noticed that the setscrew on mine is not actually the hard to match American original but a nearly matching metric screw, forced in, which would not come out easily...

UNC bolts are usually available from fastener stockists - as far as I'm aware they've not advanced much from the old American threads and should be interchangeable. Or, if you're a bit rougher, BSW bolts will fit most sizes except 1/2". Filing/grinding the hex head down to a square head could be a pain :roll:

Out of interest, what diameter is the set screw?

Cheers, Vann.

 

[Vann]

n the process of acquiring ½" shank bits for my drills I've come across a couple with woodworking tips - including a screw. This won't work with my blacksmith drills as the drill feeds the bit, so any bit with a screw will result in the two feeds fighting each other.

If you PM me I'll part with them.

Oops - just one with a screw (the other is brad point - which I'd like to hang on to).

Let me know if you'd like it. It's a ♯12 (¾").

Cheers, Vann.

 

[bugbear]

I'm surprise (if the tool is indeed 1860-ish) at the use of the loose tenons and round mortises in the construction.

It looks like these were very much factory/machine made.

BugBear

 

[AndyT]

I'm surprise (if the tool is indeed 1860-ish) at the use of the loose tenons and round mortises in the construction.

It looks like these were very much factory/machine made.

BugBear

That's an interesting observation, but I think I can turn it around and show that the way this was made is evidence that factory/machine manufacture was established in the USA by the 1860s.

I'm surprise (if the tool is indeed 1860-ish) at the use of the loose tenons and round mortises in the construction.

It looks like these were very much factory/machine made.

BugBear

That's an interesting observation, but I think I can turn it around and show that the way this was made is evidence that factory/machine manufacture was established in the USA by the 1860s.

First, a quick clarification - the original panel had fixed tenons on the end, which fit into the two short cross pieces. I made loose tenons on the replacement just so that I could use the bit of wood that the vendor gave me, which was correctly cut at the nett size, with no allowance for tenons.

Looking again at the frame, the cross pieces certainly do have tenons with rounded ends which fit into matching mortices.

I dug the original panel out of the bin, and looking closely at its tenons I could see a very consistent undercutting in the internal corner. I've seen the same thing on machine cut dovetails. I think it is deliberate and that the rotating cutter would have had a slight extra width on its end, to make sure that there were no whiskers of wood to get in the way.

So, the construction of the frame does look as if it was designed to be made by machine cutting, not by hand work. Were the Americans cutting wood by machine in the 1860s? Yes they were, and they were quicker to adopt machinery for woodworking than the British were.

You'll want evidence!

I was recently reading a couple of articles from the Construction History society in which Hente Louwe traces the development of mechanisation of architectural woodwork in Britain. In part one, he points out that the US had a severe shortage of skilled labour and so was quicker to adopt mechanisation. He mentions an account of a "sash and blind" factory in New York in 1847 where 6-8 men turned out "50 sash windows plus venetian blinds per day" and a report from 1855 which said "the working of wood by machinery in almost every branch of industry is all but universal"

I also happen to have been reading a book called "Victorian Furniture, Technology and design" by Clive D. Edwards. He cites an 1850 account of a visit to a Canadian factory where the reporter

"for the first time saw in operation the remarkably ingenious machinery for planing, turning, morticing and effecting other purposes in carpentry for which the United States have gained much deserved celebrity... So perfect is the machinery, that from rough timber a neat bedstead can be made in the short space of two minutes!"

The same book also cites an 1854 book "Things as they are in America" which admires the US adoption of mechanisation - and is available to read online. For example, this page:

(The rest is here https://archive.org/details/thingsastheyare04chamgoog)

In Britain, the first large scale use of machinery to produce mouldings was in Paxton's construction of the Crystal Palace, in 1851, but small scale furniture production resisted mechanisation for much longer.

So, thanks for sending me off down that little rabbit hole of research!

 

[Shrubby]

Nice machine Andy, I was recently admiring one very similar in the carpenters at Blists hill (google it and flickr picks will turn up showing the drill)
Regarding mechanization, the Marc Brunel - Henry Maudsley Block Mill for the Navy was about 1803.
Matt

 

[AndyT]

One slight challenge with this tool is that it needs unusual bits with a 1/2" shank. I know from old catalogues that these were offered in a range of sizes from 1/2" up to 2" but I only have the 1" bit it came with. It doesn't have any cutting spurs, so actually makes pretty poor holes. Vann generously offered to send one on a round the world trip, but I thought I might be able to find a way round the problem.

Most of the bigger old auger bits I have looked at have a pretty well standardised shank (below the taper square end) which is 3/8" diameter, so I thought I would have a go at making an adaptor. Here's the result, after a pleasant morning at the lathe, with a lump of cast iron and some drills and stuff. It has a shaft which is 1/2" diameter, with a flat on, and a concentric 1/2" hole in the thicker bit, which is cross-drilled and tapped to take a 5/16" Whitworth grub screw. No wip photos this time, but you can imagine my old treadle lathe and a pile of iron filings.

I cut off the end of a duplicate 7/8" auger bit to use in the adaptor, shown here next to the original bit

and here it is in place.

Success!

Now I just need to make a replacement for the missing catch, but that might have to wait for the weather to change for something less sunny...

 

[bugbear]

Most of the bigger old auger bits I have looked at have a pretty well standardised shank (below the taper square end) which is 3/8" diameter, so I thought I would have a go at making an adaptor. Here's the result, after a pleasant morning at the lathe, with a lump of cast iron and some drills and stuff. It has a shaft which is 1/2" diameter, with a flat on, and a concentric 1/2" hole in the thicker bit,

So how well do the 3/8" shanks fit the 1/2" hole of your adapter ?



BugBear