I have heard people use drills to start their planes especially when its cold out. Anyone know how to make one that will work in my drill? Any help would be greatly appreciated because my fingers are about to fall of.

You can get starters for about $12 on ebay. Why waste your time screwing around with other stuff, spending at least that and then having to buy one anyway. Drills don't spin fast enough in most cases. Get yourself a starter. Save a lot of headaches.

Ditto

When I first started the hobby at 15 or so, I tried making a starter from a drill. What a pain! I learned to flip the prop properly and a lot about engine tuning simply because I couldn't afford the $30 for a starter.

Skip the drill.

ebay +$$$$+S.H.=new starter that works

It'd be cheaper to buy one, but if you want to know how, I have made several. I have about 4 or 5 I have made, they all work just fine. However I use the one I bought.
If you have any starter motors from lawnmowers, or other small engines, all you need to do is add a starter cone (replacement parts for the ones you buy) and a contact switch, oh yeah and cables.
No cheaper really, building one that is.

Heck you want them I'll send you a couple home made ones, you just have to pay shipping!!

Back in the 1970's when starters were expensive, I turned a starter cone on the lathe in 8th grade shop class and bolted it onto the shaft of an old automobile starter motor, wired the whole works to an NO pushbutton switch with lamp coard and taped the switch to the side of the starter motor with a lot of friction tape. I still had to buy the rubber insert.

I ran accross the thing a few years back and found I could put the cone on a 3/8" carriage bolt for a mandrel and then chuck it up in my Makita drill. A 9.6 volt Makita drill, in low gear, can turn a .40 with enough energy to start, but frankly it is not worth the effort. Starters have gotten pretty cheap. The cheapest ones have plastic housings that break if you drop the starter on the tarmac, but otherwise, they last quite a while.

The more expensive ones last forever and stand up to serious abuse. Mine is an old Royal with ball bearings at each end of the moter shaft. I have beaten the daylights out of it, but is still works just fine. If I ever do wear it out, I'll buy a Sullivan

Another reason the drill is a particularly bad idea is the pistol grip and trigger arrangement is totally wrong for starting an engine and the only really safe way to do it would be to use two hands on the drill. Just try holding a drill up to the spinner in the normal starting position and the problem will be obvious.

John

i ONCE TOOK AN OLD STARTER MOTER FROM A hONDA MOTORCYCLE AND MADE A STARTER. iT TURNED THE ENGINES AS FAST AS ANY BOUGHTEN SYARTER BUT JUST WOULDN'T DO THE JOB. I FINALLY JUST THREW IT INTO THE TRASH AND BOUGHT ME A NEW ONE.[A TOWER HEAVEY DUTY] HAVE USED IT FOR SEVERAL YEARS NOW AND IT STILL WORKS JUST FINE. pAID ABOUT $25.00

You can get a Tower Hobbies starter for a little less than $20 .. this is not the heavy duty one, but unless you're planning on starting big engines (> 120) you can get away with the "normal" one.

If you can't afford one or aren't willing to get one, you can always go the "Chicken Stick" route (which works nicely in engines < 120) .