[TheForge] Hammer drills

[Carl Tappan]

Hey all. 
So I just went to the flea market today, and found a bucket containing
20 lbs. of aluminum square stock, assorted hand tools, crochet hooks, a
fork, and last but not least a pair of big honking hammer drills. I paid
9 dollars for the bucket, got it home, and both of the drills work
great. One is in nearly perfect condition, and drilled a respectable
hole in a granite block with little trouble. The other runs fine (except
for the lack of a way to start/stop it, short of unplugging it. This
makes sense since it seems that someone has essentially bypassed the
trigger. Oh well, simple enough to fix.), but has a broken off handle.
The body is made of aluminum, so I was thinking that I could probably
use some of the stock that came with it and make something. So I have 2
questions. does anyone have any advice relating to the handle? I am
thinking I will probably try to about copy the handle shape on the other
one, but if anyone has done something like this before I would be
interested to know how you went about it, and if you changed anything
from the original handle. Next, I am wondering about attaching it. I
would like to weld it, but I do not have a TIG welder quite yet (I
started building one and had a problem with the engine, so it will be
some time), and my MIG welder is not set up for aluminum. So I am
thinking I will gas weld it, and wondering if anyone has any advice for
this. I have done TIG on aluminum, and heard that for gas you want
oxy-hydrogen as opposed to OA. I am also open to suggestions other than
gas welding for ways to attach it, but the way it is broken there is not
much chance of bolting or riveting it. Any advice would be greatly
appreciated.
Thanks,
Carl Tappan
Blue Toad Forge