Okay, so this is a pretty cool piece of history here. Unsure of the maker or era, but I'm thinking early 1900s?
The question is this: what do I do with it? I mean, I know what it is, and that it works. Lol. But do I do a full restoration, a partial, as in rebuild the cracked base and weak old seat etc in something like oak or maybe even walnut, and try to find pins to replace the nails holding the gears in place? It has a chip on the back of one of the gears, but otherwise is still fairly solid. What say you, kind ladies and gentlemen? How far would you take this rebuild?
What he said. If the wood is dried out maybe some oil. Unless you plan on becoming a re-enactor at an old timey village and it NEEDS to be used I wouldn't touch it. If you want to make repairs try to make them as invisible as possible.
Agree, it actually looks pretty good. I can't see the crack in the base, but you could try to repair rather than replace that. Maybe also find replacement pins, that would improve the look I'd think. And it's more likely it's 1800s as these were used to start mortises for timber frame barns. Cool find. If you have need of a large mortice for a bench or something, pull it out and put it to work.
I have one, but mine is in worse shape and needs more in the way of repairs.
Excellent question, I have one sitting in my shop as well and an extra head for one. Yours looks a bit better then mine and I too was considering a restoration…..
I agree that it looks ok. It doesn't look like it has any problems with it. If I were you I would grease the gears and put a few coats of BLO on it, the wood is probably very thirsty. Here is a video of keep-up and use of a drill like this. Dreams Do Come True Dreams Do Come True 2
I will get a few more pictures of it. In the bottom most photo, it shows the gear with the missing chunk of cast. The left side (as you would use it) of what I would call the "mast" is split open by an 1/8th" or so by about 2 1/2" in length and the glue holding the base together is long gone. It is held together by the through bolts and a few washers as it is. I took the vast majority of the rust and tree gore off from the thing over a day or so of wire brush fun. I would love to find some keys to replace the nails at a bare minimum, and can make them if I have to. Either way, the base rebuild is tempting, but not really necessary.
Keep the input coming. It's always nice to have the advice of seasoned wood workers and fellow tool geeks.
Patrick, Craigslist, as odd as that is. Digging around for materials and stumbled on to the listing under the antiques section. I really dig old woodworking tools and have been bitten by the "rescue old planes and such" bug. There is just such a vast and very cool history to those types of things.
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