Tight patch and off axis brace issue

[Axel de Pugey]

Hello,

I used for the first time a Millers Falls combination brace from a flea market and while using it in hand drill mode, I noticed a bit of a rough point every revolution and then noticed it was turning a bit off axis.

I am not well equipped nor skilled for mechanics and would like to know if I could fix this issue.

On the picture I took, the green part seems to turn ok, the red part seems to be off axis.

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Do you know if it is possible to take the head off, and solve the issue pretty easily.
I have no idea about the construction and it seems different to the Stanley brace I found dismantled on You Tube.

Many thanks for your help.

[Geoff Emms]

Hello Axel,
The shaft is held in position by a pin through the ratchet wheel (in the green circle) if you can drive it out with a pin punch you should be able to dismantle it. But I don't think the shaft will be easy to straighten.
Which of the two problems is worse, the tight patch or the shaft misalignment?
To fix the tight patch you could try putting a very thin washer on the shaft of the drive gear before putting it in place to lessen the depth that the teeth engage. Try making a washer out of a thin piece of card to see if that actually works before doing anything more serious.
I've got two of these and one has a slight tight patch, just now I swapped the drive gears from one to the other and the tight patch moved to the other brace, showing me that the defect is actually on the drive, not the driven gear.
I hope this is of some help.
Cheers,
Geoff.

[Axel de Pugey]

Hello Geoff,

Many thanks for helping me look into this issue.

In fact before to see your answer I watched few more videos. None of the braces were the same model as mine but it gave me enough info to dare to dismantle further. You are completely right, I just had to push a pin. Taking off the drive gear was more work though, it was quite tight and I had to hammer a long time with a piece of wood to take it off.

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I then mounted the chuck in my pilar press' chuck and it is misaligned indeed but I might live with it, it might have always been like this and using such a tool involve some sort of muscle errors anyway.

So you are right, the hard point might be more bothering than the misalignment. I though both issues were linked but they don't seem to be as the shaft turns freely when inserted in the tool without the drive gear mounted.

I am extremely gratefull you took the time to dismantle your two tools to find the issue, a million thanks!

I notice this very drive gear as got few really light bumps, it is not much and I have angled the part so they are highlighted for the picture...that might be the issue as well.

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As a matter of fact I had the feeling this drive gear was not completely perpendicular to the axis when it was in place, maybe that was the only reason for the tight point. There was a ton of old hard grim everywhere, that did not help.
I will later today put back everything together, and see if that drive gear can be placed more naturally and if this solves the issue. If not I might try your idea and cut through a piece of thin aluminium to do a shim.

By the way, there is a spring between the jaws of the ratchet stop mechanism, but should it be a vertical spring under their "under stop parts" as well? I find the system really odd.

This tool is so unusual to find on a flea market in Europe, I really feel I should have it back into shape and use it.

Many thanks again for your help.

[Geoff Emms]

Hello Axel,
Your photo of all the parts laid out is very interesting as I've never had one apart. Let us know if it works any better after you reassemble it with a shim in place.
The ratchet mechanism looks normal for that model as far as I can see, they are not the easiest to use.
Cheers,
Geoff.

[Axel de Pugey]

Hello Geoff,

Sorry I misunderstood, I though it was the small gear you swept between the two tools.

Anyway I dismantled a bit more as I found the ratchet mechanism was not working so well and maybe one of the 2 wings is slightly off.

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I could not wait and have put back together the drill part and suddenly everything turns flawlessly, at least that’s one thing solved.

Now for the misalignment, there is no improvement. The shaft is morticed into the head and it would be way to complicated for me to correct.

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I don’t think it is too much of an issue while using the tool as a brace, movements are slower and maybe it is possible to compensate the misalignment somehow, but I am not sure it will be usable as a hand drill unfortunately.

I will now immerse everything into a citric acid bath and hope the tool will be usable.

[Geoff Emms]

Hello Axel,
Sorry for the confusion, I refer to the large gear as the drive gear and the small gear as the driven gear. The position for the washer or, as you more correctly said shim, would be on the shaft of the drive gear. On the one of mine with the tight patch, it is definitely on the drive gear. If I back the shaft off a slight amount the tight patch disappears which made me suggest putting a washer on that shaft. But as it appears your misalignment is on the main shaft my suggestion is invalid.
All the best with your rebuild and thanks for the photos.
Cheers,
Geoff.

[steven c newman]

Maybe the gear is just worn a bit on the inside....maybe just needs a new gear? Hole for the shaft may be wallowed out from use...

[Jim Koepke]

Hole for the shaft may be wallowed out from use...

If that is the case, a few of my shafts with such problems were made better with a thin piece cut from a beer or soft drink can. The soft aluminum is amenable and malleable for such needs.

jtk

[Axel de Pugey]

Hello thank you for your input.

There is not much play between the shaft and it's hole and as I wrote, if I mount the whole head into my drill press it is clear the head is not aligned...it is not much but it is significant.
As maybe my drill press is not perfect itself and errors of alignment could accumulate, I fixed the Brace in the workbench press and placed a paper with a line on it behind the head, and while turning the drill gear the head moves slightly up and down.

Now the thing is in the bath for few hours, I will put it back together as I cannot correct this misalignment unfortunately.

[Geoff Emms]

Hello Alex,
When we consider this tool could be over 100 years old who knows what sort of life it's had?
Cheers,
Geoff.

[Axel de Pugey]

So putting back the tool together I realised that the reason for the ratchet stop mechanism not working so well was that the slot where the wing should clamp, was really not deep enough to catch on one side, so I sawed it a tad more...It is still not as deep as on the other side, I was too conservative and it is better, but not enough to clamp well, I will deepen it a tad more eventually.

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While putting the rest back together I noticed that because of the shaft being bent or out of axis, it is the ratchet wheel in fact which presses against the metal.

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So I did a little shim out of a soda bottle...it is better, but I still have a tight patch.

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And at the end of the day, the tool is still out of axis. I am quite disappointed but I am not skilled enough to save this tool so I guess it will end up on my wall.

Thanks everybody for trying to help me anyway!