repairing a Stanley 73 brace, is this the wrong part?

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justinpeer

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Hi all, I have a Stanley 73 brace, a mark 3, that had a broken ratchet gear. I ordered a new one from km-wholesalesuppliers.co.uk who seem to be the only people carrying spares for it. Now that I have it, there's no hole in the ratchet for the pin to secure it to the brace. I can't find any information about any alternative, has anyone repaired one of these before and did you just drill a hole in the ratchet or did you find the correct part somewhere?

IMG_0091.jpeg
 
That would have been assembled first, then drilled as a pair, in one hit. Any misaligment would not matter, as both parts would be the same.
Two ways to go forward.
1. make an exact copy of the hole in the broken part, that should fit, or be 180 degrees out.
2. Drill 90 degrees out to the hole in the shaft. This would leave a weakened shaft.
Perfection would be to replace the shaft, as well as the rachet cog.

Bod
 
Drill the first hole the ratchet wheel, then slip it onto the shaft and line that hole up with the one in the shaft, then drill the second hole right through both assembled parts.
How did you manage to break it in the first place?
Cheers,
Geoff.
 
should be simple enough to bore it on one side centre and then with the new hole lined up with the shaft bore,run the drill through the other side with the whole thing in situ to ensure an accurate bore right through.
have,nt used or seen a brace used in many years. still have 2 and a set of tanged bits though .can't bring myself to get shot of them
 
This may well be 'Left Field' but why does it have to be 'drilled through' ? As far as component strength is concerned that must be the least good option. From the photo provided I can't tell whether the gear has a suitable number of teeth such that any hole drilled through would always fall 'between the teeth'.

If I were at the design stage I would put a simple dowel (interference fit) in the hole in the shaft protruding to a distance of about half of that between the gear bore and the gear tooth root, then cut a keyway in the gear to suit.
 
This may well be 'Left Field' but why does it have to be 'drilled through' ?

It may be that the pin not only transmits the drive, but also retains the whole chuck and shaft above it into the body of the drill (stops it slipping out to the right in his photo).

With a keyway in the gear, it would not be possible to assemble it - the axle with projecting pin would not go through its bearing. You'd have to make it like one of those Lamello magic magnetic things.

---

JB Weld or soft solder would take up any misalignment.
 
Thanks all, I'll try the drilling halfway, fitting it and drilling through. I have a decent drill press so should be able to be reasonably accurate I hope :)

I use the brace on the farm quite often, it doesn't need power and is great for putting hinge latches through gate posts. Tends to have more power than many battery tools. It's also more controllable I find that power tools, you can go really really slowly with it and make sure you get the alignment right where a power tool tends to just power into things. I found it very useful putting dog holes into my bench because of this.

This time, someone else was using it and put in more force that the tool could take and it sheared the pin and the ratchet went off into the field somewhere.

Will come back to let you know how it goes.
 
When i was working on housing stock mid 80's ,i was swinging 5 int doors a day and all bored out with brace and bit .
main thing was to have good bits and a wee triangular file for edging them now and then .
Changed times .
Best use of a brace was always the 1 1/4" hole for a nightlatch .Superb .
Hope you get it sorted
 
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