Goodell - Pratt #5-1/2 Dual Speed Eggbeater Drill

[Jim Koepke]

This Goodell - Pratt #5-1/2 drill came home with me recently from a day trip out to the coast to do some shopping at the Costco just south of Astoria, Oregon.

The shifting mechanism was a bit stiff and today seemed like a good day to give it some TLC. The crank shaft and drive shaft are held on with small stubby screws. The drive shaft has slots in line with the axis on which the gear selector rides:

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At the bottom left of the image at the top of the chuck threads is a bearing assembly. The redish ring conceals the ball bearings.

The shifting is done by a small knob seen in this image near the top left portion of the cast iron frame:

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The screws seen on the right side of the frame are where the guide screws for the crank shaft and drive shaft reside. These are there to keep paint out of the holes when it is spray painted.

The piece between the two gears is made up of three pieces, the cylinder and the two pieces protruding from either end. The cylinder is moved up or down by the eccentric pin on the shifter/knob assembly. The pawls engage one gear while the other turns freely. The two pieces inside the cylinder ride in the axial slots on the drive shaft. This all takes place unseen inside the cover cylinder seen between the drill frame and the gears and shifting cylinder.

Here is a portion of the patent drawing:

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Cleaning a century’s worth of built up grunge can be tedious:

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Shortly after this it was discovered an old auger file fit perfectly between the gear teeth.

There were a few burrs on the shifting cylinder and inside the gear box cover. These were smoothed with a stone and a chainsaw file. Any place where dirt and grunge could accumulate was cleaned with wire brushes, awls, lacquer thinner and whatever else was at hand.

During a short break it was mentioned to Candy how tempting it was to go in to town to buy some red paint. This seemed ridiculous and had me thinking of reassembling the drill without painting. She said we already had some.red paint and went out to the well house to find it. Turns out it was a pretty good match for the original color:

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The black was from a spray can of Rust-Oleum. The red was brush on oil base enamel, this isn’t going to be entered into a beauty contest. Spray paint would be the better way to go for an even coat.

When it is all dry an reassembled the finished result will be photographed and posted.

jtk

[Frederick Skelly]

Looks like a fun little project Sir!

[Jim Koepke]

Looks like a fun little project Sir!

It has been fun. This is the first full blown rehab for me in a long time.

My original reason for taking this hand drill apart was to improve the speed shifter. The painting came as an after thought.

As far as improving the shifting function is concerned, mission accomplished.

After yesterday’s post a return visit to the shop helped me to decide to take a few more steps.

First was cleaning up the ball bearings. This drill was designed before triskaidekaphobia became common. It has thirteen 1/8” ball bearings used in the assembly. The bearings are composed of two hard flat disks with a sleeve to contain the balls. Something learned many years ago while working in a bicycle shop came in handy:

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A little grease helps to keep the balls where they are installed.

It also helps to have a pair of tweezers to grasp the bearings for ease of assembly:

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These tweezers came from a yard sale or flea market back in the 1970s.

With the bearings held in a small can, the ridges in the end of the can make it easy to pick up each ball for inserting in to the assembly. Once this was back together it was secured and set aside for today’s reassembly.

There were some light burrs on the engagement pawls for the shifting mechanism. A stone was used to remove these:

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This was a minimal removal of metal to prevent other problems. It only took a little bit of work to have everything moving smoothly.

Fast forward to today. The gear/shifting mechanism was assembled with the orientation of the inner workings noted:

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A coating of grease was applied to the retaining screw slot and shifter keyways on the drive shaft. The gears and shifter were set in to position in the frame and the shaft was inserted while taking care to hold the bearing together. The retaining screw was then installed:

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A screw starting tool is a handy thing to have at a time like this, especially with smaller screws.

The crank handle and gear was also given a coat of grease in the retaining screw slot.

The top handle is held by threads cut in to the wooden handle. If a handle is a little loose, it can often be tightened up a little by wrapping a shaving around the metal threads:

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It only takes a couple wraps of a thin shaving. Too much shaving and it jams up. It also helps to wrap the shaving in the same direction the handle will be turned.

It isn’t going to win any beauty contests:

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But it works better than it did:

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If one of these comes your way, it is a fairly easy drill to clean up and put back in service.

The shifting mechanism seems to require a slow turning of the crank to work. After all, how often are the slots on the two gears going to be lined up.

For general information, on slow speed the chuck turns approximately 1-1/8 revolutions for one revolution of the hand crank. On high speed the chuck spins just over 4 revolutions for one revolution of the hand crank.

One other note, drilling holes in pieces of scrap to hold parts was a big help. It was almost like having a third hand.

jtk

[James Spangler]

Jim,
Awesome job with the photos showing the progression of your work on this drill - I appreciate the extra effort you take to do that.
For me, there's a lot of satisfaction restoring an old crusty tool back to good working order.
Last year I restored a Millers Falls 2-speed eggbeater drill, but was too intimidated to try to fool with the bearings.
Seeing your work on this drill was almost as much fun as doing it myself. Thanks!
Jim

[Jim Koepke]

Thanks for the kind words Jim.

Glad you enjoyed it.

jtk