More Estate Sale Finds: Eggbeater Scramble

[James Spangler]

Here's a wonderful cornucopia of eggbeater drills that I discovered at an estate sale last weekend.
It was the last day of a 3-day sale and these were still sitting on the "old tool" table, just waiting for me to discover them. :)

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These all are in working order with some dirt and grunge.
Here's what I could identify:

Top row
1. Miller's Falls 2-speed #12
2. Goodell-Pratt Shelbourne 2-speed (no model# found)
3. Mohawk Shelbourne 2-speed (no model# found)
4. Craftsman 2-speed 107.1
5. North Bros. Yankee 1-speed 540A
Bottom row
1. Craftsman 1-speed (also marked with 107.1 huh?)
2. Goodell-Pratt (no model# found)

That Yankee has a 5-function switch that I discovered is like that on the model 1530. There are several YT videos on the 1530 describing this ratchet-selector switch to select Plain/RH/LH/RH-Double/Lock. Very cool.
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Now I need to decide what I'm going to do with these. Light cleaning, Complete restore/paint, or something in between.
Suggestions?

And a 2nd question: The Goodell-Pratt (1st row, #2) has a decal on the hub which is partially gone. Is there a good way to clean the grunge off that hub without damaging what's left of the decal?

[James Spangler]

Forgot to mention...the MF #12 is equipped with a bubble-level on the side of the frame. Rather clever.

[Jim Koepke]

Hi James, looks like a nice haul. My herd of eggbeaters has been curtailed by reason of lack of space. Of course they do occasionally try and tell me they need to come home with me.

The MF #12 looks like it has a two jaw chuck, for tanged bits, do any of the others all have two jaw chucks?

jtk

[Stephen Rosenthal]

James,

Nice haul. After decades of doing without one, I succumbed to purchasing a breast drill at an estate sale - a Yankee 1555 for $12. I bought it only because it was a multi speed Yankee with the 5 position ratchet switch and it was $12. The thing is HEAVY, in fact so heavy it is unwieldy and difficult to use. It hangs in my shop as a lovely display piece whenever I reach for my cordless drill.

Pardon the long winded preamble, but I wouldn’t spend too much time or expend a lot of energy rehabbing the breast drills, especially if you are aiming to resell. They’re not one of the “collectibles”. Which is not to say they’re not nice drills, there’s just not much of a market for them.

Of the 4 eggbeaters, the Yankee 540A has the most (only?) value, especially if you can find or fashion the auxiliary handle. Btw, unscrewing the auxiliary handle on my breast drill reveals a screwdriver tip. Check your breast drill handles to see if the same is true.

Good luck with whatever you decide to do with them.

[Rob Luter]

Nice find James. I’ve had a few egg beaters pass through my shop. Most found new homes during the great tool purge of ‘18. I kept one Millers Falls specimen that I found in the wild in nearly mint shape. It makes a great little drill for anything under 1/4”. Larger than that and I’m using some electrons.

[James Spangler]

For Jim: The drills that I've numbered as 1, 3, and 5 have 2-jaw chucks, the others have 3-jaw chucks.

For Stephen & Rob: I have a bit of an obsession with wanting to restore old, mostly discarded tools, so I'll likely restore the 540A and probably hang on to the others to tackle them someday, too. The side handle hole on the 540A has 5/16-18 threads, so I can fabricates a replacement handle with the correct bolt size. But alas, none of the other side handles have screwdriver tips.
Yes, I was guessing that the smaller eggbeater drills still have some utility for quick light-duty work, but the larger breast drills have become essentially obsolete, replaced by those new-fangled ones powered by electrons. Any of the large ones that I decide to restore would be aimed at collectors.

[Erich Weidner]

There are a couple of threads here about restoring some of these. I did two of them myself. One was my Grandfathers, another a North Bros. I got on ebay. It was fun to clean up and give new life to those.
I didn't do a "proper restoration", just cleaned up rust and gunk, and re-lubed. They both work great, but in my limited experience the Miller's Fall's #2 is a bit bulky for the pilot holes I've used them for.

I found the size/weight of the North Bros. 2101A better. But I'm not drilling big holes.

[steven c newman]

Hanging on the side of my tool cabinet in the shop....Goodell Pratt Co. No. 0477. 3 jaw chuck, can hold up to and including anything with a 1/2" shank...and is a simple 2 speed affair.

In and around the tool cabinet are about 10 eggbeaters from the HUGE Millers Falls No. 2-01 down to a few TINY single gear versions ( Granit ?) Currently in use?
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A double pinon, Goodell Pratt Co. for small pilot holes...I think it MIGHT be a No. 262?

[Rob Luter]

My Millers Falls 5A as found in the wild

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52183735383_2fd6027abf_h.jpg

[Jim Koepke]

My Millers Falls 5A as found in the wild

Beautiful find Rob. Much nicer looking then the Goodell & Pratt find of mine:

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It is now my go to user.

jtk