Fire/Pump Drill Upgrade

[Pele's Fire]

Hi all,

I just wanted to share with you all something I did to my pump drill that has made it alot easier to use. I bought a Fire Pump Drill on the net & it had a neat little cutout on the bottom with a piece of mullein held in place by some sinew.

well that lasted for almost one coal & when I went to replace it I promply broke it where it ties in, it just snapped off. I got to thinking that this wasn't the most reliable way of using this thing around the house or in the woods.

What I did & I know some of you "Primitive Purist" types will shudder at the thought, was put a 1/2 inch keyless chuck like the kind on a drill, on the end as the dowel. It was 1/2 inch thick roughly. Now not only can I throw any piece of wood in the end regardless of diameter, it is extremely quick & I also can use it like a drill with a regular bit.

It works EXTREMELY well. This was my first drill fire & I was experimenting so I cut a 2 inch piece of the same 1/2 inch diameter dowel out & threw it in the end of the chuck tightened it up & went to work on the piece of cedar plank I had. within seconds it was smoking profusely & I got a big fat pile of smoking dust in which was a coal about 1/4 of an inch wide. When I started coughing from the smoke I stopped. I am a smoke pansy
It was so big it fell off the leaf I had it on & I just scooted it back on in one huge chunk. All in about 25 seconds the coal was so big when I blew on it it threw off a shower of embers. It's my best new toy!


Cheers!

 

[rich59]

I must try the pump drill some time.

The fly wheel intrigues me. I presume it is needed to maintain momentum. But, what if I were to lash a cross piece of wood (or 2 for balance) instead of the metal or stone that seems commonly used? Would that work?

 

[dommyracer]

It probably would work Rich, but I suspect it would be tricky to balance. I think the advantage of using a fly wheel is that its easier to get the mass balanced - otherwise you could end up with some serious wobble....

 

[Pele's Fire]

When I switched this over, the Keyless chuck added too much weight for the mullein to handle between that & the flywheel & it just shatters the mullein. Because the chuck weighs as much as the flywheel alone, I figured I would try just the chuck in the end of the dowel. It didn't work. I had to put it back on the original spindle with the flywheel. You do need the weight distributed far enough out I am assuming at least 5-6 inch diameter of the current flywheel which looks to be made of oak for it to work.

I have since tried 3 different types of stick instead of the mullein & they all work beautifully one being a branch of mango that blew off of my tree in the recent winds.

I probably could have used a primarily plastic chuck but instead have an all metal one feels like it weighs about 2 pounds.

I have seen a stone used, they work great too as long as its pretty uniformly round.

 

[Biddlesby]

Have you got a picture of this? I'm all up for cheating with keyless chucks.

 

[Pele's Fire]

I do have pictures. I just don't have them in anything but a jpg. which won't load on this site. If you like I can send them to you directly? Really not much to it other than at the end of the spindle I screwed on the 1/2 inch chuck. I am having alot of fun coughing from all the smoke it makes. ' Even my wife gave it a go & had fun. She says we should light all our campfires this way from now on The thing is just too big & heavy to really pack. I still prefer flint & steel for going out & about. I've got a friend thinking about making a standing up version which would really be something to see I think.