Jessica Pierce-LaRose
05-07-2011, 8:08 PM
I do a surprising (to me anyway) of small drilling on (non-woodworking) projects using wire-gauge drill bits, usually in the #59-#65 size. I had been buying the fancy ones with 3/32nd shanks, but it's just cheaper and easier to buy the little tubes of a dozen or whatever, and the ones that are too dull get tossed in the coffee can for use as alignment pins for fretboards, or the idea I'll have some use for them, until I get sick of the junk and make a recycling run. (Usually within two hours of bringing a car load of recycling down, I'll find myself in desperate need of that piece of weird scrap metal I held onto for four months, but that's another story.)
Anyway, point of the story is, I'm using and enjoying my eggbeater more and more, but it doesn't seem like my later-era MF 2A is going to hold sub 1/16" bits very well, and it's a bit big for that work anyway. But I'd like one that would. Every small egg beater I stumble across has been in sad shape, so I may turn to the internet at some point, but I'm just curious; does anyone have suggestions for what I should be looking for? Would an Miller Falls No.5 in decent shape hold these tiny bits, or should I be looking for something else? I saw a No.1 that looked promising, but it had a two jaw chuck that seemed totally stuck, so I passed. I assume the biggest thing is going to be the condition of the jaws, but I was just curious if anyone had input on a model of eggbeater for small scale work.
Anyway, point of the story is, I'm using and enjoying my eggbeater more and more, but it doesn't seem like my later-era MF 2A is going to hold sub 1/16" bits very well, and it's a bit big for that work anyway. But I'd like one that would. Every small egg beater I stumble across has been in sad shape, so I may turn to the internet at some point, but I'm just curious; does anyone have suggestions for what I should be looking for? Would an Miller Falls No.5 in decent shape hold these tiny bits, or should I be looking for something else? I saw a No.1 that looked promising, but it had a two jaw chuck that seemed totally stuck, so I passed. I assume the biggest thing is going to be the condition of the jaws, but I was just curious if anyone had input on a model of eggbeater for small scale work.