[TheForge] New Best Frends: Morse chuck and Champion No 200

[Peter Hirst]

Picked ip a nice find over the weekend:  A Champion No 200 post drill in perfect (after a 2 hr cleaning and tune up) working order. This is the one with the quick release-engage thread feed mechanism and a lever arm feed/andjuster.  All of its parts but one tension screw in the 1/2" chuck.  Its also fitted with a Morse No.2 chuck, 1868 and 74 patent dates, nicely knurled.  Not a Morse taper, this is like the Jacobs no 2, with a straight 1/2" shank, except instead of the key and gear of the Jacobs, it has only a 3/8 hole in the upper part to take a wrench (which I made from some 1045 round that I have a bunch of) . The chuck is sticky but it works.  What a machine this is!  Stands 5' tall, weighs about 200# , and all lubed up the flywheel carries enough momentum for about 10-15 revs of the hand crank shaft under no load.  Put a perfect 3/8 hole in a 5/8 square in 60 seconds, which my Delta bench Model with a 3/8 Jacobs cant do.

For anyone into hand power, I would recommend grabbing any one of these babies you find for anything like a reasonable price.  They are a marvel .  The lever feed and releasable screw feed is a huge leap over any post drill without this setup.  Very fast to do multiple cuts.  Even makes production work practicable.

Had a good weekend.  Got a 1904 Fisher 140# with all its edges, and the drill, for what works out to 59 cents a pound.  

Keziah