Making holes without electrons

[Sheffield Tony]

So, the one power tool I find myself struggling to wean myself off is the cordless drill. Even though I curse the fact that it is never charged when I need to use it, it is pretty convenient.

For big holes, the brace and bit, or Scotch eye augers are great and strangely fun to use. For smaller holes, I have an egg beater of the Footprint sort, or a number of those two speed Stanley breast drills, but don't get on with either. Perhaps my Footprint egg beater was a poor choice. The design decision to paint the gears including the teeth was a strange one and increases friction. And the top handle wobbles, and eventually the roll pin retaining it works itself out. The side handle is a great solution for Zaphod Beeblebrox and others with three arms, but not for me. The Stanley breast drills do work, but are heavy and for small jobs, I prefer to drill vertically as I find it easier to get the hole straight.

What do I need ? I quite like the look of the old Miller's Falls hand drills - but would they work better ?

[PS: I hope there are some electronic engineers / physicists to enjoy what I did with the thread title]

 

[novocaine]

you will still need electrons I'm afraid, along with protons.
although, if you can remove them, you'd get a pretty nice hole.

sorry, non of this is helpful, but it amused me.

 

[spb]

Which of the possible problems of the brace and bit for small holes are you coming across? If it just feels too big and heavy for a small hole, then (apart from a smaller brace) I quite like these for occasional small stuff, though I wouldn't use them for rows and rows of holes. If it's that a two-jaw chuck can't grip small bits, then Axminster sell a hex-shanked 6mm three-jaw chuck for about £3 that will bridge the gap.

 

[Sheffield Tony]

For a small (say, up to 6mm) hole a brace seems quite a slow way, lacking the gearing of egg beater types. I do have a smaller throw brace, but I don't have a means of holding a smaller drill in a brace. I do also have some rather old gimlets - including some that fit into a brace - that I tend to forget as an option.

 

[spb]

Yeah, the brace can feel slow, especially with twist bits. For the holding issue I have one of these small chucks lying around somewhere, but I generally reach for the cordless before I bother to fit it into the brace, especially since I got a small 12V drill that's rather easier to handle than the big 18V one.

 

[Tiresias]

This is only a variation on what you already have, but I have one of these: a mini brace



I think I got it from Workshop Heaven, although they don’t seem to stock them anymore. The throw (if that is the correct word) is only about 50mm. It is Nipponese, and very good to use, particularly with the supplied bits which go down to 2 or 3mm. It will fit anywhere a cordless would. It’s down in the Borders just now, and I’m in the ‘burgh, but I can find the manufacturer if you want me to.

For smaller drill sizes I have a twist drill holder, which I got from Lidl or Aldi. Just a knurled aluminium tube with a collet arrangement, but if you are drilling holes 1mm or under in wood you really don’t need much more.

Oh, and I have some small bits that fit in a Yankee. Has worked once or twice in curious situations. Not exactly fine woodworking though.

 

[Alf]

Get yourself an older wheel brace/hand drill/eggbeater/whateveryouwanttocallit toot sweet. The ubiquitous Stanley 803 is more than good enough. Whatever you go for, make sure its chuck jaws and gears aren't worn and that it's a double pinion and you should be a much happier bunny. And don't worry about the side handle - hardly anybody ever uses them, which is why they're so often missing.

Oh, and for small holes in a hurry to rival the cordless drill, a Yankee push drill is a delight.

 

[Pete Maddex]

Millars Falls are miles above Stanley, the teeth are prime numbers so its 1086 (or something like that) revolutions before the same teeth mesh again.

They are well worth searching out.

What you want is one of these

[youtubessl]7T7-g94UnI4[/youtubessl]

I have one and its very nice.

Pete

 

[AndyT]

So, the one power tool I find myself struggling to wean myself off is the cordless drill. Even though I curse the fact that it is never charged when I need to use it, it is pretty convenient.

For big holes, the brace and bit, or Scotch eye augers are great and strangely fun to use. For smaller holes, I have an egg beater of the Footprint sort, or a number of those two speed Stanley breast drills, but don't get on with either. Perhaps my Footprint egg beater was a poor choice. The design decision to paint the gears including the teeth was a strange one and increases friction. And the top handle wobbles, and eventually the roll pin retaining it works itself out. The side handle is a great solution for Zaphod Beeblebrox and others with three arms, but not for me. The Stanley breast drills do work, but are heavy and for small jobs, I prefer to drill vertically as I find it easier to get the hole straight.

What do I need ? I quite like the look of the old Miller's Falls hand drills - but would they work better ?

[PS: I hope there are some electronic engineers / physicists to enjoy what I did with the thread title]

Tony, I think the short answer is to carry on picking up alternatives and trying them until some rise to the top of the heap naturally. I've never spent much on any one, but do seem to have acquired a fair selection. At least they don't seem to have shot up in price like planes and routers have.

But first, I'm puzzled by your blue footprint experience. I take it you are talking about one of these?



Mine isn't secured by roll pins and doesn't wobble. Although I store it with the chest pad and the angle handle installed, both are removable or swappable. They are held in by little grub screws, which need the allen key that is clipped to the shaft.



There's a hole either side so they can be gripped securely by a pair of screws. Is that what you have? I find that the running action is really smooth and efficient, despite the blue paint on the gears.

In fact, it runs sweeter than my previous favourite, this special Stanley made for surgeons, with all metal parts so it can be sterilised in an autoclave.





I think these drills with a keyed chuck are more precisely made than the commoner hand tightened ones. However, that does mean that they are heavier and can be awkward.

So when making little pilot holes for screws in hinges, I quite like using the one in the bottom of this photo - the Stanley is another option, included here just for scale.



It's a cheap, lightweight thing, marked 'Foreign' and probably sold in a fretwork set for making holes in pierced work. But if you only want a 2 or 3mm hole in softwood, it's quite nice. It stays in the drawer with a bit installed, ready for use.

In a similar vein, I have also enjoyed using little Archimedian style drills for making pilot holes. You do need to find the right bits though, and there are a few varieties around.



You might remember this action shot of a slightly larger one in use. The key advantage there was that the greater length helped my get the angle right when drilling into a fairly small rebate to hold the back on a chest of drawers.



So that covers a few of the options I like. I do have more - including a fancy Yankee 1555, with similar ratcheting tricks to the one in the video. And a brace or two.

And some bits.






Overall though, I think the main issue is that in all the woodworking I do, the need to make holes is actually quite unusual. I could drill holes all day with the kit I've got but so seldom need to I find it hard to give each one the attention it deserves!

 

[Sheffield Tony]

Goodness - tool porn !

Andy, my Footprint is a 160A hand drill, I think yours is the 150A hand / breast combination drill. On mine the handle is "fixed" by a roll pin. It shares the key operated chuck, and has what looks like the original chuck key - which oddly is a poor fit - the holes that take the end of the key are too big. On the whole, I would say it doesn't work that well. I have another very small one of unknown brand somewhere, but the chuck is in poor condition.

My grandad had one of those Archimedes drills. I don't know what happened to it

 

[AndyT]

My grandad had one of those Archimedes drills. I don't know what happened to it

Maybe he visited Bristol one day...

 

[Vann]

I think AndyT summed it up well, though when it comes to eggbeaters I agree with Alf...

Get yourself an older wheel brace/hand drill/eggbeater/whateveryouwanttocallit toot sweet. The ubiquitous Stanley 803 is more than good enough...

But beware of the very similar Stanley 805. The 803 is double pinion, the 805 only has a single pinion - and I'm amazed at the difference the second pinion makes. There are nicer eggbeaters - such as the Yankee 1530 or 1530A that Pete mentions, but you might look for months and pay through the nose for one of those.

Try to find a 5" or 6" brace to go with your larger braces (much easier there in the UK than here in NZ).

And if you're really determined to avoid burning those electrons, here's a hand cranked drill I bought (before I fell off the wagon and started buying Wadkins).

It's a Canadian Blower & Forge blacksmiths post drill. It's for handcranking your way through steel and is far too slow for most woodworking - but just great with Forstner bits.
I believe post drills are rare in UK, but you do have those Union type hand cranked drills with the flywheel on top.

Cheers, Vann.

 

[AndyP]

Oh Vann
We see a lot of machines around here but that one takes the biscuit. Gorgeous.

 

[Vann]

...that one takes the biscuit. Gorgeous.

Thanks for the kind words Andy. But that one is quite plain.

I like the ones with serpentine spokes - particularly Silver post drills. Here's my No.14.

I have several other Silver post drills, this one is complete.

Another nice one is this Boynton & Plummer No.1 1/2.
It was incomplete when I got it, but I've since sourced a genuine B&P flywheel. I still need to source a table for it.

I could go on... (and on, and on)

Cheers, Vann.

 

[Sheffield Tony]

I so need one of those now. I love those sinuous spokes.

I'm enjoying the suggestions so far. The idea seems to be to acquire a load and see which I like best ... who would have thought it !

 

[AndyT]

Grand collection there Vann. You do know that you're one of the reasons why I have a lovely old UK hand cranked bench drill, an American double cranked beam borer and a little lightweight Millers Falls jobbie, don't you?

If anyone needs any holes, I can make them in a wide range of sizes. They don't cost much to post!

 

[AndyP]

Vann,
Do you have a workshop or a museum?

Thanks for sharing.

 

[Alf]

Overall though, I think the main issue is that in all the woodworking I do, the need to make holes is actually quite unusual. I could drill holes all day with the kit I've got but so seldom need to I find it hard to give each one the attention it deserves!

This sounds all too familiar. So many holes, so little need for them.

Very nice collection of boring things, Vann! You must have a most capacious w'shop. I restricted my interest in such things when I found out just how painful they are to accidentally walk into, and how often it seemed to happen.

 

[AndyP]

Stand by I'm gonna ask a daft question

How do those drill press things work? Turning the handle turns the chuck and bit but does turning that handle provide the downward travel too? Or is that what the horizontal wheel on the top is for?

 

[Vann]

Firstly, I want to apologise to the OP for going off on this tangent.

...You do know that you're one of the reasons why I have a lovely old UK hand cranked bench drill, an American double cranked beam borer and a little lightweight Millers Falls jobbie, don't you? ...

Er, no. But while we're blaming each other, I was going to blame Alf for my OTT interest in eggbeater drills . It was her interesting posts over the other side and her entertaining blog that got me hooked.

...Do you have a workshop or a museum?...

Well Andy, I tend to get carried away. First it was 100 planes, then 20 breast drills and eggbeaters, then 40 braces, then a dozen post drills, now Wadkins.
So I bolted five of the post drills on the wall in the room above the garage. I have three more I want to put up, but SWMBO said "NO" (suggesting the wall might fall over under the weight).
And the first one (the Canadian one) is in my garage/workshop below.

...You must have a most capacious w'shop. I restricted my interest in such things when I found out just how painful they are to accidentally walk into, and how often it seemed to happen.

It's a three car garage - and I need to restrict my interst more, too... for the same reasons

Cheers, Vann.

 

[Vann]

...How do those drill press things work? Turning the handle turns the chuck and bit but does turning that handle provide the downward travel too? Or is that what the horizontal wheel on the top is for?

First you attach the crank hub and handle on to one of the two shafts.
The crank shaft is normal speed, but attaching to the flywheel shaft gives a lower speed for drill bigger holes.

The crank gear turns the spindle gear (and hence the spindle).

The crank gear and the flywheel gear are connected, so cranking either shaft turns the spindle at one end of the drive chain - and turns the flywheel at the other end.
The crank gear has a cam.

The cam follower on the bottom end of the self-feed lever causes the lever to rock backwards, and a spring causes it to return. At the top end of the self-feed lever is a pawl. The pawl engages notches in the top feed wheel rotating it a few degrees for each revolution of the crank gear. There is an adjustment screw that allows 1, 2 or 3 notches of movement, and the pawl can be flipped clear if you prefer to feed it yourself.
The feed wheel is attached to an acme thread above the spindle, and the ratchetting movement drives the acme threaded rod down forcing the spindle down.

You can drill holes an inch diameter (and the big Silver No.14 is rated to drill up to 1 1/2" holes).

Fascinating to watch - and great for pinching fingers :eusa-naughty:

Cheers, Vann.

 

[wallace]

I nearly bought a biggish hand operated drill from fred dibnahs place when his workshops were getting auctioned off, wish I had now.

 

[AndyP]

Thank you Vann for the pictures and the explanation.

When I saw “3 car garage” I wondered how many, if any, there is room for.

 

[Vann]

...When I saw “3 car garage” I wondered how many, if any, there is room for.

You're on to it ;-)

Cheers, Vann.