Felloe drill

[john k]

I picked up this drill some time ago, made a case to transport it, because old cast iron is rather fragile.   Found the second one, upper, at a farm sale.    Have seen them with feet, but sometimes used clamped in a vise.  The crank handle has a ratchet, the bit is fed into the work piece with the wheel on the right.   The  wheel on the left controls the closeness of the work.   Uses square tapered shank bits, no lock.   Will drill steel, if it is somewhat soft, like wrought iron is.   Was set up on a table or stand to drill the feloe holes in the wooden rim of a wagon wheel.   Have since picked up a third in even better condition, some original red paint remaining.   Have seen these in catalogs from 1915 or so.  Probably dates back closer to 1890 when introduced.   The biggest problem with metal work back when, was making a hole,  this would have been a very handy portable drill press.  Probably beat using a brace drill on metal all hollow!

[johnsironsanctuary]

Nice John, I always wondered if those had a specific use or if they were just GP hole drillers.  Thanks for the post.  I have another style. I'll try and take a photo tomorrow.

[Bill Houghton]

Nice John, I always wondered if those had a specific use or if they were just GP hole drillers.

Similar drills were sold into the 1970s for use by farmers and others who had to take the tools to the job in the field (often literally, such as when the tractor broke right in the middle of plowing).  The name with which I'm most familiar is "Cole," and they were called just "Cole drills."  I used to have a catalog from that period which offered the Cole drill and a range of handy accessories, like the v-block that automatically centered the drill on round stock (once you got it aligned).  I wish I could send myself some money through a time machine - the prices were way, way lower than they currently go for as Kollektibles.  (But then, that's true of many things.  When I decided my life would be improved by ownership of a Stanley 90J bullnose plane, I paid two or three times what I could have spent back when they were in production.)

I imagine that, as gas-powered generators and, later, battery-powered cordless drills became cheaply available, they kind of stole the market from Cole.  I don't know when production ceased.

Cole also made a really nifty vise that integrated with the drill, or could be used by itsownself, and attached to the bench by a block that also served as an anvil, or, again, hauled out to the field (although I'm not sure how you fastened it to things in the field).

I wouldn't walk barefoot across burning coals to get one - there aren't, actually, any tools for which I'd walk barefoot across burning coals - but I wouldn't leave one behind if I found it at the right price at a yard/estate sale.

[rusty]

Everything used to be cheaper...