Gloat - Breast Drill

[Mike Olson]

I stopped by an estate sale on the way back from lunch today. The guy was really tough on his tools, I have never seen that many broken tools in one place before. I did spot this Breast Drill in amongst some old hand sickles. It's was $27 which is the most i have spent on any used tool so far but it looked so cool. and the typical egg beater drills i have feel so delicate so this is a nice change.

So here it is, I took the pictures with my cellphone in the trunk of my car so the pic's are not that great. I didn't find any names on it but I from the gears to the chuck it looks like a MF 12 but the upper handle and breast handle looks different so i'm not sure what it is.

[Dave Matson]

Sure looks like a later type MF 12 (the oldtoolheaven picture is of an earlier model). Odd that its not marked, as they tend to have writing on the crank handle. Perhaps this one was made for a hardware store brand. Clean it and put it to use! If you undo the set screw on the breast plate, and rotate the plate 90°, you can you better use the finger hole cast into the frame.

[Mike Olson]

The bit chuck has Millers Falls with the Millers Falls Mass address listed and it has the push button gear removal so according to OldToolheaven it's between 1925 and 1931 but no where does it mention the ball bearing idler that mine has.

The only reason i really noticed it is because it wasn't touching anything. is it supposed to be touching the main gear? if so, can i whack it until it moves in further? i don't want to whack it and break it if it's not supposed to move. there is a gap of about 3/8" between the ball bearing and the back of the main gear.

Thanks,
Mike

[Jim Koepke]

I would be reluctant to whack anything made of cast iron. To often that is the last thing that is done to it.

jim

[Dave Matson]

There is currently a MF 12 for sale on ebay (item # 320518357575) which includes some close up pictures of the idler mount. It looks like it is far closer to the main gear than yours. You could try taking a block of wood, drilling a hole in it and placing it over the bearing and then squeezing the frame in a vise to get the bearing mount to move inward. Then again it will probably work fine without 'repair' :)