Springs for Stanley 805 hand drill

[Vagabond]

Hi,

My Stanly 805 hand drill, received as a Christmas present (new) in 1957 and used ever since, now has a broken chuck spring and is unusable. I am anxious to continue to use it, but have not been able to find a new set of springs. Can anyone help, please?

Vagabond

 

[RogerP]

These might be okay. Don't think those for the 803 are much different if at all.
http://www.johnstonestools.co.uk/acatalog/Hand_Drill_Springs.html

 

[ED65]

How does making your own sound? It's fairly easily done, if a bit fiddly.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

These might be okay. Don't think those for the 803 are much different if at all.
http://www.johnstonestools.co.uk/acatalog/Hand_Drill_Springs.html

£3+ for a set of springs? I've never paid £3 for an 803 :lol:

 

[Vagabond]

Hi Phil,

Thanks for the suggestion, but they are not coil springs as are used in the 803, they are more 'Z' shaped pieces of wire.



Hi Ed,

Thanks. I wondered about making my own, but would presumably need some special spring wire of the exact gauge. Any suggestions?

 

[ED65]

Doesn't have to be an exact match in terms of gauge but obviously you want to get close. You can start with another spring of the wrong length and diameter if you happen to have one lying about in a "these might come in handy some day" box or can harvest it from something else broken or redundant in the house (computer mouse, old printer, VCR or DCD player, remote or small torch with a battery spring, analogue clock, steel guitar string). If you have to start from scratch you need to buy music wire.

Rather than trying to describe the whole process and probably not getting it across properly I'll just link to the guide I used as my main starting point:
http://www.deansphotographica.com/machi ... rings.html

Using elements of the above and other info I found during my searches I recently made my first replacement spring, for a small hand drill which had one broken spring but was otherwise in good shape. Well except for the handle which a dog had chewed on or something! But all the metal parts were in great nick for its age, bar that one spring.

Anyway my new spring isn't quite as similar to the old ones as I'd have liked but the jaws close so the chuck works which is all that I need for now. I plan to make one that's a better match later on, and do a few extras while I'm at it for possible future drill purchases, but this showed me that an exact match isn't overly critical for a replacement chuck spring.

Best of luck!

 

[Vagabond]

Thanks Ed. Invaluable advice. I'm sure to have something somewhere along the lines you have suggested. It's a relief to know that the gauge is not too critical. I thought it would have to fit the slots perfectly. Just find something not too thick and I'm away. Thanks again!

 

[Vann]

There are two models of chuck used on the Stanley 803 and 805 eggbeaters. The earlier one came from the equilivent J.A. Chapman drill, and continued into the Stanley UK era. This one is (from memory) 1/4" capacity, and has the Z shaped chuck springs. Your best bet is to pick up another 803/805 from a garage sale or similar (dammit, I gave three or four Stanley 805 eggbeaters to the local pre-school several months ago, after robbing the later chucks and fitting them with the earlier chucks).

The later chuck is 5/16" capacity, and has 3 coil springs to push the jaws apart.

Cheers, Vann.

 

[ED65]

I'd forgotten there were two possible chuck styles for Stanley hand drills. If your chuck doesn't use coil springs but instead is somewhat like the Record one below you can still form replacements:

Paperclip wire can be used in a pinch, even though it's not spring steel. Best source of the proper stuff from items you might have in the house is a safety pin.

 

[rxh]

I used safety pins as material for springs for a Millers Falls No.5. I used paper clip wire to get the geometry right and then copied the shape with the safety pin wire, which is much springier.

 

[Vagabond]

Thanks to rhx, Vann and Ed for even more suggestions. Even though previous suggestions were about coil springs they had put me on the right track. The latest posts have made it even simpler because it would have been a little difficult to find something to use, although I have no doubt it would have been possible. I am sold on the tips about paper clips and safety pins - they would never have occurred to me.

Thanks again to everybody.

 

[Rhyolith]

I think the proper name for this type of chuck is "protected spring" least thats what Millers Falls called them.

I have a record 125 with same problem. What are people using to shape the safty pins and paper clips?

 

[ED65]

I've made many similar shapes in paper clips (for armatures in sculpture) over the years and usually just use a pair of pliers. Just realised how ambiguous that is! I mean two pliers. You can do it without a second pliers, especially if you have an anvil-like surface to work against, but it's much easier with.

You can of course jig it if you want to produce them in any numbers and for them to end up as uniform as poss, as shown here on the Plane Shavings Blog: New Eggbeater Chuck Springs.