A shaft drilling rig comprises a rig head having means whereby it may be attached to a cable so as to be raised and lowered within a shaft being sunk. A central hollow column depends from the rig head and carries a base member at its lower end. There are rig supporting feet carried by the base member. The rig has a plurality of booms each being operatively carried at its upper end by the central column near the rig head to pivot relative to the column and itself carrying at its outer end a feed holder for a beam to carry a rock drill. A plurality of support members are respectively associated with the booms, each such support member being operatively carried at its lower end by the central column near the base member to pivot relative to the column and pivotally engaging its associated boom at a pivot location. Each boom has an extendable section arranged to extend the length thereof which extendable section is located between the upper end of the boom and its said pivot location. The central column slidably carries within it a sub-assembly having at its lower end a down-the-hole hammer, rotary means for rotating the hammer, and guide means for guiding the sub-assembly within the column. There is further provided a sprocket and chain device for moving the sub-assembly relative to the column. Thus the hammer can drill a central relief hole in the floor of the shaft being sunk before the blasting takes place in the holes drilled or to be drilled by the rock drills that will be carried by the mounting heads.

For drilling holes in remote locations there is provided drilling apparatus consisting of hand-transportable modules which include a base assembly (12), a derrick (13) removably mounted on the base assembly and including an elongated tubular member (51) and a carriage (52) moved along the tubular member by a block and tackle (81), and a hydraulic cylinder (97). The carriage has a detachable support portion (55) that supports a drill assembly (14) on one side of the derrick for drilling and an anchor assembly (15) on the other side of the derrick for anchoring the base assembly to the earth's surface. A hydrostatic drive system (17) selectively actuates the carriage, drill and anchor.

A guide frame (1) for an earth drilling apparatus includes a support plate (6) for holding the drive unit (7) and a handle frame (2) having handle sections (17, 18) for holding and guiding the earth drilling apparatus. Operator-controlled elements (19a, 19b, 19c) for controlling the drive unit (7) are arranged in the region of the handle section (18). The handle sections (17, 18) of the handle frame (2) lie in a plane (5) above the support plate (6). The handle frame (2) encloses the drive unit (7) as a closed frame and is connected via a carrier frame (8) to the support plate (6). The carrier plate (8) is fixed to the handle frame (2) via several coupling elements (20). Each coupling element (20) includes a vibration damper (24) which is arranged between the carrier frame (8) and the handle frame (2). In this way, the handle frame is decoupled by the carrier frame from the drive unit with respect to vibration without affecting the bracing of reaction forces via the handle frame.

A portable bandsaw mill, readily made sufficiently light in weight to be carried by two people, having a saw unit supported on rollers, so that the saw unit can be readily guided and the cut controlled and adjusted manually. A ground-supported support frame or unit provides guide tracks spaced apart on opposite sides of a log or other workpiece, on which the saw unit can be rollingly advanced. The ends of the guide tracks are supported in end frames by structure enabling the levels of the guide tracks to be conveniently adjusted for successively lower passes of the saw unit through the log. Guide beam ends are capable of independent adjustment to accommodate differences in level between the four corners of the support unit. A manually advanced rolling saw head of the saw unit includes two bandsaw pulleys, each having a bandsaw blade entrained thereon, one being an idler pulley and the other a drive pulley. The drive pulley, rotatably driven, can be powered by a hydraulic motor, with the actual pressure fluid source separate from the mill. The motor can be readily separable from the saw unit for use in powering other apparatus. The mill can be readily employed for rip sawing logs into boards at any convenient location for example the felling site.

A drill pipe rotary drive mechanism for an earth drilling apparatus comprises a housing, a drive member mounted in the housing for rotation therein about a rotary axis and having an axial bore opening at each end to the exterior of the housing, and a drive mechanism in the housing for rotatably driving the drive member. A drive coupling tool is adapted to be readily removably mounted in the drive member so that the drive mechanism can be used for rotatably driving different types of earth drilling tools, the coupling tool having a tubular body portion telescopingly removably mounted in the axial bore of the drive member, the body portion having an axial opening extending therethrough for reception of a portion of the length of the drill pipe, a flange at one end of the body portion for abutting engagement with one end of the drive member for axially locating the coupling tool in the drive member, the coupling tool being adapted to be non-rotatably coupled to a drilling tool and to the drive member.