Breast Drill Gloat

[Dan Andrews]

I collect Millers Falls hand drills (egg beater type) in particular, but am interested in any woodworking antique for the right price.

On e-bay was a scruffy looking breast drill with a cast iron frame. It was complete except for the side handle. The shipping was listed as $3. I figured this must be a mistake but I went ahead and put a bid of another $3. on the drill. I won the bid. A few days later the drill arrived in a large box with a post office sticker on the side showing the seller had paid $10. to mail it (go figure?).

Anyway, the drill had some rust and even had mud on it. It has a level fastened to the side of it and I wiped some grime off it to see if the vile was broken or not. Low and behold, the plate on the level said Millers Falls. I looked up the drill on A Millers Falls Home Page and it is a Model is No. 18, 1903-1912 or No. 118, 1913 (they apparently changed numbers in the middle of the same model production)

I have put about 16 hours into it over the past 3 days. Cleaning, De-rusting, refinishing in original colors and finally making a new side handle.

Due to technical difficulties, I will try to post pics in an additional post.:o

[Dan Andrews]

If the colors don't show well, The drive gear and breast plate are dark green with gold trim. They sure made tools attractive back then

[Adam Woznicki]

Umm, sounds good but the pics are tiny. We need bigger pics.

And some close ups.

[Rick Erickson]

Yep - would love to see larger pictures

[Dan Andrews]

I hope these pics are better. I am technologically challanged, probably contributes to my love of hand tools.:)

[Jim Koepke]

I sometimes feel sad for those who list on ebay without starting the bid high enough to cover shipping if they do not charge separately for shipping.

I often place starting bids on items just in case. It is surprising how often a week later I get an email from ebay telling me "You Won."

Nice looking restoration.

It looks like the drive arm can move back and forth the change the leverage. How is that secured?

jim

[Dan Andrews]

I
It looks like the drive arm can move back and forth the change the leverage. How is that secured?

jim

The large knurled screw holding The crank arm to the drive gear has a very slight shoulder on it. The crank arm is slotted and has recesses bored along the slot in three places. Loosen the screw enough so the shoulder clears the recess it is in, slide the slotted arm until the desired recess is under the screw, then tighten the screw so the shoulder seats in that recess to lock the arm back in place again.

On the back side of the drill is a large knurled screw that is removed in order to remove the drive gear. The drive gear can then be repositiond to the upper or lower hole in the frame so that one of the two sets of gear teeth on the back of the drive gear are in mesh with the pinion gear. The two available gear ratios are 1:1 and 1:3.

I showed this drill to my Bro.-in-law. He was in manufacturing machine shop for about 30 years as a machinist and as a process engineer. He said to manufacture that exact drill today in the USA would result in retail price of at least $300. And that would only be if there were volume sales for it.:eek: