Miller's Falls No. 2 restored

[Richard Magbanua]

I found a rusty Miller's Falls hand drill at a local antique mall a few months ago and finally got around to restoring it. I really like using these hand drills for drilling pilot holes instead of using my 18v cordless. I also find them to be very beautiful and well made. This may not be what a collector would have done, but I'm not so much a collector. I'm mostly a user. It needed and new paint job and a new handle so that's what it got. I'm sure this will get plenty of use in the shop.

I do have one question for you though. I used a sandblaster to remove the old paint and rust. It seems I didn't mask the gears off as well as I should have because I can feel just a bit of aluminum oxide has gotten inside the gear shaft. It still works well, but eventually I would rather clean it out if I can. I can see a pin above the bottom gear. Can this be pounded out or do I need to grind it off to remove it from the drill? How about the top gear?

Here are more pictures and comments of the restoration...

http://richardmagbanua.blogspot.com/

Thanks!

[Dave Matson]

Thanks for sharing this! I have an older MF #2 (with the little railroad car wheel (http://www.georgesbasement.com/mfno2typestudy/typeemain.html)) that needs a new ferrule since the one it has is cracked. On the new handle you made, did you make the ferrule roughly the same size as the old one? I'm just curious if your borg-sourced ferrule would work with an original handle. Also what type of paint did you use?

[Richard Magbanua]

Your welcome Dave.
Not sure if the brass one is the same size. Wiktor Kuc uses copper ferrules for his restorations. I think they are copper adaptors or couplings. If it is too big, you could add something to the handle to make it bigger. If it's too small, then you could simply trim to fit.

I used regular gloss rustoleum spray paint over gray primer. Be sure to mask everything with tape. For the wheel, I taped it all up and then cut the tape with a x-acto knife.

Oh, BTW. The handle and ferrule were a PITA to take off. The metal pin holding the ferrule goes all the way through the ferrule, handle and drill shaft. The one on this drill did not want to be driven out. I had to basically destroy the handle and the ferrule to get it all out. The handle was split anyways.

Good luck and keep us updated!