Olde Tool Workshop
“Quality tools are the key to unlocking your woodworking potential”
Menu
Up and Down and Round and Round
There are times in-between the major projects that I do small side projects just to see if I can get something cool to work. One of my interests is primitive fire starting techniques. There is some good overlap with this interest and my traditional woodworking. Well, a Pump Drill is definitely a project that has both aspects. It can be used as a drill or a fire starting tool.
First the fire starting. It is not certain if the Iroquois invented this for fire starting or were culturally contaminated by seeing the pump drill used by the settlers from the Old World. Either way, it is a very effective fire starter if built right. I have not used mine for lighting fires yet, as I have not built a proper chuck to house either a drill bit or a piece of fire drill stick. If you are interested in the fire starting aspects of this tool I am providing below a few links that will give you more information.
Primitive Pump Drill fire starter
Field and Stream Pump Fire Drill
As this is a woodworking blog, I will concentrate on the boring aspects of this tool. There is really very little information on when this tools was invented, but it is known to have been used as far back as middle ages and evolved from the bow drill.
I have seen this drill used in a few videos and decided to make one of my own. I had the basic components on hand a 7/8″ dowel, a nice heavy piece of hickory, a scrap of walnut and some leather thong strapping from my recent leather work.
Construction
Make the flywheel from the hickory. This took the most time. As my lathe is not built yet, I had to resort to, shall we say, more crude techniques for making a round disk out of a really, really hard piece of wood. I made the disk about 1 1/2″ thick and 3″ in diameter. I could have made it a bit wider, but a too large flywheel will block your view of what you are drilling. I then drilled a 7/8″ hole in the center as true to 90 deg. as I could.
Make the shaft. Well I already had the dowel and so I just cut it to length at about 18″ and put it through the hole in the flywheel about 4″ from the bottom tip. I drilled a 1/4″ hole thru the flywheel into the shaft and drove a 1/4 dowel in to secure the flywheel (no glue needed). Then drill a 1/4″ hole in the top end of the shaft for the strapping. I also, very carefully, drilled a 1/4″ hole in center of the tip of shaft.
Make the pump stick. Drill a 7/8″ hole in the center of my walnut scrap that was about 18″X2″X7/8″. Then drill a 1/4″ hole for the strapping in each end about 3/4″ from the ends. To finish I tapered the ends on the shaving horse with my draw knife and spokeshave and beveled the sharp edges with my new LN block plane.
Assembly
This could not be easier, I added some bees wax to the shaft where the pump stick would be sliding up and down. Then slide the pump stick on the shaft and then attach the leather strapping thru the hole in the tip and secure with a small wedge. Next pass the strap through the top hole in the shaft and then back to the other end of the pump stick and secure in the same manner as the other side. You should adjust the pump stick to hang about 1″ - 1 1/2″ from touching the flywheel.
In the video below, you will see that for demonstration purposes, I added one of my spring pole lathe centers to the tip on the shaft so that it would spin when I pumped it. I did make a trip to ED Lebetkin’s awesome tool store and purchased two drill “spoon” type bits that work really well in these types of drills. Ordinary twist bits will only cut on half of the strokes and are not very efficient. These spoon bits cut on every stroke as they have a cutting edge on each side.
Next Steps: Make a chuck for the square tapered bits and one for the fire starting too.
One final note; once my lathe is finished, I want to make a really nice version of this drill with a polished stone flywheel and turned components in a couple of different sizes.
-Aaron
This entry was posted in Handmade Tools on February 27, 2013 by OldeToolWorkshop.
Post navigation
<- Got me some SYP It’s about time - let’s get this lathe started ->
Search the Olde Tool Workshop Site
Search for:
Subscribe to Blog via Email
Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.
Email Address
Subscribe
Recent Posts
- Why We Do It: A Reflection on Traditional Hand Tool Woodworking
- Should You Upgrade to Stanley Bedrock Planes?
- “A Marriage of Convenience”
- Hickory Bark and Ash Stool
- Plane Catalogs - And Other Resources
My YouTube Channel
Like me on Facebook
Recent Comments
- William Henderson on “A Marriage of Convenience”
- reed on “A Marriage of Convenience”
- Beth Henderson on Tool Chest Dump
- Will Myers on English Layout Square
- OldeToolWorkshop on A Bad Day
Archives
- July 2025
- June 2023
- April 2022
- August 2021
- January 2021
- December 2020
- November 2020
- May 2020
- February 2020
- January 2020
- September 2018
- May 2018
- December 2017
- November 2015
- October 2015
- September 2015
- March 2015
- January 2015
- July 2014
- March 2014
- June 2013
- May 2013
- February 2013
- December 2012
- October 2012
- September 2012
- August 2012
- June 2012
- May 2012
- April 2012
Categories
- Furniture
- General
- Greenwood Projects
- Handmade Tools
- Leather
- New Tools
- Tool Chest
- Tools
- Uncategorized
- vintage tools
- Workbench
- Workshop
Blogroll
- Lost Art Press
- Chris Schwarz’s Blog
- Joel’s Blog at Tools For Working Wood
- The Saw Wright
- WK Fine Tools
- Ron’s Sharpening Blog
We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. If you continue to use this site we will assume that you are happy with it.OkNo
You can revoke your consent any time using the Revoke consent button.Revoke consent
Coffee donations not active yet
Olde Tool WorkshopWe sincerly appreciate your support.
Use WeChat to scan the QR code and complete your donation.
