Portable Drilling Machine

This drill was one of two large portable drills used in the Coatbank Engine Works of Murray and Paterson.

These very versatile drills could be lifted by an overhead crane inside the factory and moved to where they were needed. This was very useful because sometimes it was not possible to transport the thing being built to one of the larger fixed drilling machines.



© Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland.

Licensor www.scran.ac.uk

This drill was made in the 1960s to replace a very similar model by the same maker, Asquith which by then had been taken over by the Staveley Machine Tool Company.

Here you can see the two mobile drills inside the works. Murray and Paterson were one of the biggest engineering firms in Coatbridge. They made machinery for the iron and steel industries and also built rudders for ships.