I nearly just made the most basic mistake of buying old tools. I was in my favourite local old tools shop yesterday, saw a tool I really liked, but didn't buy it.
Happily, nobody else had bought it in the few hours that the shop had been open while I struggled with my indecisiveness. (I thank the weather gods too - it's cold, damp and miserable out today, and anyone sensible will have stayed indoors.)
Any way, I now have the item in question, and as we have not had a thread about nice old drills for a while I thought I'd share it with you.
It's not some horrible plasticy thing from that 1980 we all remember. It's a Millers Falls model 1980, and according to Randy Roeder's researches here it dates to some time between 1931 and 1944.
As with so many of the Millers Falls drills, it has a couple of party tricks.
For starters, it's a two speed model, but you don't need to remove anything to change speeds; you just twist the knurled part at the front, and that swaps the drive from one gear to the other, leaving the other one meshed but just spinning round regardless.
It's also got a ratchet, which can work forwards and backwards. I've not attempted to dismantle the gearbox as there is no need to, but I have had a closer look at the ratchet mechanism. It's simple and ingenious.
The driven side has a set of rectangular holes like this:
On the handle there is a wedge shaped pin which is spring loaded inside a little barrel. You can lift it up and rotate it 90°. Spot the difference here:
That rotation changes how the wedge end behaves. Like this, it will drive one way and freewheel the other:
but like this it will be locked and will drive in either direction
I reckon that's pretty neat and I also like the way that there are no loose springs or tiny pawls that fly out, Sturmey Archer style, when you take the lid off!
All in all, it's an unusually good tool, in working order. The hex head screw is not original but it is the correct thread (3/16" 32 TPI) so although I might fiddle about and make a better matching one, there is no need to do so.
I'd never seen one of these before, although I know that Millers Falls tools were imported for quite a long time. Has anyone else got anything similar?
Happily, nobody else had bought it in the few hours that the shop had been open while I struggled with my indecisiveness. (I thank the weather gods too - it's cold, damp and miserable out today, and anyone sensible will have stayed indoors.)
Any way, I now have the item in question, and as we have not had a thread about nice old drills for a while I thought I'd share it with you.
It's not some horrible plasticy thing from that 1980 we all remember. It's a Millers Falls model 1980, and according to Randy Roeder's researches here it dates to some time between 1931 and 1944.
As with so many of the Millers Falls drills, it has a couple of party tricks.
For starters, it's a two speed model, but you don't need to remove anything to change speeds; you just twist the knurled part at the front, and that swaps the drive from one gear to the other, leaving the other one meshed but just spinning round regardless.
It's also got a ratchet, which can work forwards and backwards. I've not attempted to dismantle the gearbox as there is no need to, but I have had a closer look at the ratchet mechanism. It's simple and ingenious.
The driven side has a set of rectangular holes like this:
On the handle there is a wedge shaped pin which is spring loaded inside a little barrel. You can lift it up and rotate it 90°. Spot the difference here:
That rotation changes how the wedge end behaves. Like this, it will drive one way and freewheel the other:
but like this it will be locked and will drive in either direction
I reckon that's pretty neat and I also like the way that there are no loose springs or tiny pawls that fly out, Sturmey Archer style, when you take the lid off!
All in all, it's an unusually good tool, in working order. The hex head screw is not original but it is the correct thread (3/16" 32 TPI) so although I might fiddle about and make a better matching one, there is no need to do so.
I'd never seen one of these before, although I know that Millers Falls tools were imported for quite a long time. Has anyone else got anything similar?
