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Reid Strand
02-15-2011, 3:16 PM
Hi All, hoping someone here can help me out. I've picked up a Millers Falls 120 breast drill, the style made from 1927 to 1935. At least thats the closest picture and description, but this things pretty rough looking. However, it works pretty smooth, and I'd like to clean it up. The problem is, the wood on the crank handle is chipped and pretty chewed up. Does anyone know if there is a way to screw the metal end cap off so I can slide the old wood off and make a new handle or would the new handle need to be made in 2 parts and glued together in place? I'd appreciate any advice you have. I'm sure if I rip off the old handle the answer would be obvious, but if there is no easy way to get a new one on without glue, I might just try to patch up the current handle. Thanks.

Bill Houghton
02-16-2011, 4:01 PM
I'm not familiar with that particular drill, but in my observation, a lot of the wood handles on eggbeater drills are held on with what amounts to really long rivets. If you've got the capability of doing a split turning, that might be safest; alternatively, dutchman patches glued on and smoothed down might do it.

Pictures would help, of course.

Marv Werner
02-16-2011, 10:01 PM
Hi Reid,

The wood part of the handle is not easy to remove. The only way I know of is to grind off the end of the long rivet. I have fixed a handle like that, but what I did was to replace that long rivet with a round headed bolt with some threads on the end that goes through the crank. I threaded the hole in the crank and used a lock nut on the backside. I think I used an "acorn" nut.

Maybe you can find an old junker drill that has that same crank handle. MF used that type handle on several of their breast drill models.

The easier way to solve your problem, as you suggested, is to just repair the chipped part, remove all the old finish and refinish it.

Reid Strand
02-17-2011, 3:20 PM
Thanks for the inputs. the wood is just not worth the effort to repair. I like the idea of grinding off the rivet and using a bolt, but It doesn't seem like there's enough room behind the crank for a nut. I can do a split turning, but I'm never that happy with my glue ups. I wonder about cutting the outside end off, turning a shorter wood handle, Threading the bar, and putting the acorn nut on that end.

Makes you wonder why the original makers wouldn't have anticipated the need to replace the handle one in a while.

Thanks again for your help.

Dan Andrews
02-18-2011, 4:56 PM
I did just what you are talking about a month ago to a MF #12. Somebody gave me a rough drill with a very short and small diameter crank handle. The shaft, or rivet if you prefer, had been cut off much shorter than the original would have been. The shaft has flats ground on each side. The hole in the crank arm therefore has a rectangular hole with rounded ends. You need to grind off the part of the shaft that goes through the hole and is peened over. Now the shaft can be pulled out of the crank arm. The wooden handle will slide right off. If the current lengh of the handle is comfortable for you, all you need to do is file or grind the flats bach up the shaft enough so that about 1/32 inch of the shaft will protrude thru the back side of the crank arm hole. Turn your wooden handle, reassemble and peen the protruding 1/23 inch over to lock the shaft onto the arm as was originally done.

With my short shaft (no wise cracks here) I had to weld an additionl lengh of rod onto it (at this point I left the rod longer even than the original would have been becase I think most breast drills are a little stingy with their crank and side handles considering the amount of force you can put on one), grind down the OD of the rod then proceed as above. Instead of peening the protruding end of the shaft over the arm, I ground the flats so that the shaft just came flush with the back side of the arm. Then I drilled and tapped the end of the shaft and put a machine screw and washer on to retain it. Now the wooden handle can be changed by removing the screw and washer and pulling the shaft free of the crank arm.