On receiving your mail order Shaw core drill check the shipment box and drill kit components for delivery damage and your kit’s components against the packing list. If any component is missing or damaged call your dealer for replacements. Then familiarize yourself with your kits components.

Backpack
Try on the backpack and adjust the straps to fit your frame. The pack weight should rest firmly on the belt at your hips rather than on your shoulders. Tubular drill components, including the core catcher, threaded lead and stainless extensions should be placed on the sides of the pack and held in place with straps and pack cover. The engine drill ought to be placed handles-down on the floor of the pack. The compression bottle of the water supply system should be placed in the pouch on the back of the pack. All other items such as fuel or water container(s), spare parts and other gear should be placed over the engine drill.

Maintenance

• Store the pack in a dry, preferably heated place to avoid mildewing
• wipe it off as necessary with a damp cloth
• apply water repelling surface treatments to prevent staining

Threaded Lead
The threaded lead holds either a replaceable diamond bit for competent rock or a replaceable cutter tip for clay or soil. Make sure that the threaded end of the diamond bit or cutter tip is well lubricated with anti-seize.  Thread a diamond bit to the tip of the lead. Place the J-slotted (rear) end of the threaded lead over the driver on the nose of the water swivel.

Maintenance
The threaded lead should be:

• routinely lubricated with Teflon grease at the back (J-slotted) end;
• held in-place during bit removal with the stainless handle;
• lubricated with anti-seize at the threaded end;
• only cautiously used in loose, fractured rock, especially in a non-vertical drilling position, due to the risk of severe abrasion.   

Diamond Bit
To start a rock boring you must first avoid bit “walking” across the uncut rock surface. To do this, cut a small groove in the rock as an anchor point. With the engine running at half speed and water flowing slowly from the bit, turn the lead and bit about thirty degrees from the vertical. As you do this, position the bit with the inside (in front of heel) of your boot over the rock. Now cut a shallow, crescent-shaped groove. Using this grove as an anchor point, gradually rotate the spinning bit toward the vertical until a complete ring groove has been cut in the rock. Now accelerate to full throttle, put a little weight over the engine handles and drill straight in. Find a “sweet spot” where the bit is cutting fast but the engine is not bogged down. Drilling water should be returning to the rock surface carrying rock flour in a low viscosity mixture similar to buttermilk. Always stop and pull out the bit whenever there is a noticeable rpm reduction. This can mean that water circulation has been lost, or a core has broken off inside the lead and is knocking about there. 

Maintenance
The diamond bits of your kit are high performance, sintered grinding tools for fast penetration of rock. They must be kept in an aggressive grinding (sharp) condition and can be sensitive to rough treatment.

You should:

• Always avoid striking or pounding on sintered diamond bits; this causes hairline cracking which leads to bit breakup.
• Routinely check the roughness of the bit face; if the diamonds have been planed flat by grinding against quartz or other hard minerals, then bit penetration will slow or stop.
• To roughen “sharpen” a bit, dress it by running it at high rpm in any of many possible abrasives including pumice (blocks, pebbles or coarsely ground), sand blast grit (screened, sharp-edged nickel slag is best), mason sand, beach sand in the field or brick. These abrasives re-expose the diamonds by grinding away the matrix metal (mostly cobalt) between them while preserving the diamonds themselves. Once exposed, the bit diamonds will grind aggressively as before.
• Remove a damaged or worn bit by turning it out of the threaded lead with channel locks, a pipe wrench or vice. Removal of a worn or damaged diamond bit is best done by gentle heating of the threaded lead near it's bit end with the use of an electric heat gun, torch (very gently, with careful rotation) or even a cigarette lighter. Lead heating slightly enlarges it's threaded bore to release it's field tightened grip on the bit.

Stainless Handle
As mentioned above, one use of the stainless handle is to help the operator remove cores and core fragments from the boring in combination with the core catcher. The stainless handle is also useful for pulling and turning a drill string and bit jammed in a boring.

Maintenance

• Lubricate the o-rings of the handle with silicone grease.

Tanaka 270PFDH gear modified engine drill
To start the Tanaka engine drill, mix a container of regular gasoline with stabilized two-stroke oil in a ratio of 50:1. Fill the fuel tank with this mixture. Press the choke lever to the closed position. Vigorously pull the recoil cord handle till the engine starts. Open the choke slowly as the engine rpm increases.

Maintenance
Your primary engine maintenance tasks will be to:

• keep the air filter clean.
• use stabilized two-stroke engine oil or empty the fuel tank and run the engine dry at the end of each field season to avoid varnish formation in the carburetor.
• accurately mix fuel and two-stroke engine oil in a 50:1 gasoline to oil ratio.
• keep the engine running freely at a relatively high rpm under load.

Water Supply System
Activate the water supply system which includes the compression bottle, water swivel, handle-mounted ball valve, quick-connect/disconnect fittings and nylon tubing. Check for silicone grease lubrication of the water swivel shaft external o-rings. Remove the compression bottle screw cap and fill the polyethylene bottle to the 2-gallon mark with clean water. Replace the screw cap tightly. Close the ball valve. Pressurize the compression bottle by plunging down the pump handle until there is noticeable resistance. Check for air (bottle) or water (push connect fittings) leakage. If no leaks are apparent, then open the ball valve slightly till a fast drip of water emerges from the end of the lead.

Maintenance
To keep the water supply system working well you should:

• if possible use clean silt-free water because silt abrades the water swivel rotational o-rings causing leakage;
• replace abraded water swivel o-rings and lubricate them with silicone grease;
• avoid kinking nylon tubing;
• replace cracked, leaking external o-rings on the water swivel nose;
• open the air pump of the compression bottle cap and lubricate its inside walls with silicone grease.

Stainless Extensions
As the advance of the threaded lead approaches its full length of twenty-four inches, remove any rock core from the lead or the boring itself and then attach an extension to it. Many extensions may be added as the boring proceeds. If the threaded lead or an extension is somehow disconnected in the boring, you can recapture the down-hole (lost) parts by pressing the drill string over them and turning clock-wise (to the right). Unless there is an obstruction, the male part of the first extension ought to enter the drive end of the lost component and re-connect with it.

Maintenance

• Both male and female parts of the extensions ought to be lubricated with silicone grease at all times
• Replace the two o-rings of the male part as they become worn or cracked with age.

Core Catcher
The core catcher should be used to break out rock cores not retained inside the threaded lead and to keep the boring free of core fragments. To use the catcher properly attach it to the down-hole end of the drill string and the handle to the above-ground end of the string. Using the handle push the catcher down the boring till it touches the top of the core or core fragment. Push the handle firmly down a short distance more. Although it is hardly detectable the core will almost always break off and be retained by the catcher. A core fragment will be retained. Remove the drill string and catcher from the boring. Normally a rock core or fragment will protrude from its tip. Remove the core by pushing it backward past the tab then out the back of the catcher.

Maintenance

• The stiff tab behind the catcher tip should remain bent inward at about twenty-five degrees. If this angle becomes shallower with field use, adjust it by pushing it inward.
• Lubricate the female end of the catcher with silicone grease.

Loose Materials Bit
The hardened stainless steel loose materials bit (LMB), a flighted, twist type drill with carbide blade and water injection ports allows for fast penetration of soft and/or loose earth materials such as soil, clay, rotted rock, peat or muskeg. It need not be retracted in the course of boring advance as no obstructing core is produced. It's action produces sleeved, open borings in otherwise unstable materials through which core drilling and sampling at depth in competent rock can be well done. Abundant water is needed to flush the water and mud slurry produced by it's use from the boring.

Maintenance

• Sharpen the carbide blade with a grinder with a diamond, greenstone or other very hard wheel
• keep water ports clear of mud or clay
• keep female coupling clean and lubricated