Goodell Pratt Hand Drill Repair

[Russell Talbot]

Hi All

I have been repairing a Goodell Pratt 5 1/2 B hand drill that belonged to my father and to his father. The objective is not to make it like new, that would lose it’s history, but to make it into a usable tool.

Unfortunately I am having trouble with the last bit (OK I admit it’s the last bit because it’s the most difficult and I left it until last).

I have had some great help from members of the UK workshop forums but these drills are quite rare in the UK so I am posting here to see if anyone can help.

drill.jpg

I’ll show you what I’ve done so far.

The main handle on the drill had clearly been repaired before and the ferrule had been redrilled and had a "pin" retaining the handle. The pin was six strands of copper wire with nasty sharp ends.

ferrule.jpg

I took the pin out and removed the handle. I discovered a piece of wood had been let into the handle and the extra hole through the ferrule had been drilled through the threaded iron of the drill. Unfortunately it had missed.

thread1.jpg

The metal between the original and the new hole had also cracked.

thread2.jpg


After some thought I decided that this had to be fixed. My objective is to make this a usable tool and this would eventually have broken. I cut the old thread off and drilled the frame with an 8mm hole. I found a bolt with the same thread as the original and turned that down to 8mm and loctited the two together.

thread3.jpg

The next problem I tackled was that the crank knob wouldn't rotate. I thought this was probably due to rust on the shaft. I drilled off the riveted over end and removed the knob. I hit a big snag here. I thought the shaft was tight in the knob because it was rusty. It turned out that the shaft was too short because of previous attempts to tighten up the riveting. That had also swollen the end of the shaft inside the knob, so the knob split as I tapped out the shaft. I glued it back together. I used superglue because the low viscosity meant I could get it in without having to remove the small brass ferrule from the knob. I turned a new shaft and re-riveted the knob in place.

crankhandle1.jpg

crankhandle2.jpg

As I mentioned the main handle had already been repaired once but the new bit of wood disintegrated as I took it to pieces. The first task was to clean up the hole in the handle and make it round.

That was easy once I'd worked out how to hold it in the lathe.

faceplate.jpg

To be continued.

Russell

[Russell Talbot]

The next step was to make a wooden threaded insert for the handle. I tried making a tap from a bolt with the right thread but couldn't cut a thread in the end grain. I decided to use a dremel type tool to cut the thread. I made a special cutter for the tool,

threaditool.jpg

and a special tool holder for the lathe.

threading.jpg

Here are the bits,

insert.jpg

and this is how they went together.

trialfit.jpg

Next job was to plug the surplus holes in the ferrule. I brazed brass screws into the holes and then filed them flat. There’s a plug in this photo just to the right of the hole.

ferrule2.jpg

The handle is back on and there is a cross drilling for a pin.

handleon.jpg

Then I made the missing part of the chuck.

mushroom2.jpg

I had to deburr the socket in the drill shaft but it fits in the chuck nicely.
chuck.jpg

To be continued

Russell

[Russell Talbot]

Then I put all the bits together and it drills holes.

drill2.jpg

I made a new side handle based on measurements I got from helpful people at ukworkshop.co.uk. Any inaccuracy in the knob (ferrule is a bit short) I blame on my incompetence.

knob.jpg
This is where I’ve got to.

drillknob.jpg

Observant readers may have noticed there is still a problem. The low speed pinion is missing.

pinion.jpg

I have been considering trying to make a pinion. I had never made a gear before but since I got to this stage I have made a few bits of tooling and experimented with cutting spur gears. Unfortunately mitered bevel gears are the most difficult to cut and the more I have read, measured and calculated the more difficult it looks. One problem is that the gears aren’t made quite as the books I have read suggest they should be, another is that the methods suggested for making bevel gears in the home workshop approximate the tooth form and I’m not clear whether these will mesh satisfactorily with the original gear. That makes it very difficult to decide exactly what the gear should look like.

All that brings me to the point of this post. Does anyone have a spare slow speed pinion for a Goodell Patt 5 1/2 B. Any condition would be good – I could try and copy a broken one or one with missing teeth.

I have considered buying a drill just for the part but the drills I have seen are in better condition than this one was and I don’t want to destroy another drill to repair this one.

All suggestions will be gratefully received.

Russell

[Jim Koepke]

Howdy Russel and welcome to the Creek.

Your rustoration is looking very good.

One of my junk drills has a mechanism like this. Will take a look to see if it is still there and a Goodell Pratt. It has been picked for parts in the past. Not sure if it is still in the junk pile or if it was sent to another member in need.

jtk

[Peter Christensen]

If all else fails you could buy another in good condition, copy the gear on it and then sell it again. This is one of those occasions where the work to restore the tool can't be justified monetarily, only sentimentally.

[Russell Talbot]

Thanks Jim, I'll keep my fingers crossed.

Peter, you're absolutely right, it is only sentimental. It's a good idea to buy and sell on again - I'll think about it - one snag is that they are so rare in the UK that I might have to pay transatlantic postage twice on the whole drill.

Thanks for taking an interest.

Russell

[Mike Hutchison]

Just want to chime in w/ thumbs up on what you've done thus far

[Russell Talbot]

Thanks Mike, glad you approve.

Russell

[Jim Koepke]

Hi Russell, sorry for the delay in getting back to you. It appears that drill may have been sent to someone who needed some parts. My recollection after thinking about it a bit more is that it may have been a Yankee model.

Good luck with your rustoration.

jtk

[Russell Talbot]

Jim. Thanks for looking.

Russell

[Kevin Yarger]

Russell, looking at my example of this drill, the two gears are the same, so you have a gear to copy. It makes sense from a manufacturer's standpoint, that the two gears would be the same.

Nice job, that drill is looking good!!

[Rob Paul]

My low speed pinion gear is different from the high speed one (steeper bevel, less teeth, smaller diameter)
[This is on a drill labelled as a Goodell Pratt 5-1/2 ]
P1030746.jpg
If you can buy or borrow another drill, you should be able to use an existing gear to use as a form to cast a bronze gear for yours

[Richard Darjes]

I too own this drill, but mine was almost complete when I found it. It was missing the springs for the chuck and may have sat unused for many decades because of that. I got advice in the early 2000's on where I could get the right size springs - cheap plastic mechanical pencils have a smaller diameter spring than ball point pens.

I have to disagree with Kevin Yarger, the two gears on my 5 1/2 Goodell Pratt hand drill are very different and are not interchangeable. On a slightly different point, my drill is equipped with ball bearings at the bottom of the main frame of the tool. It also has a patent date of 1896. In your pictures, it doesn't appear that your drill is equipped with these ball bearings (there is a small red spacer that is hard to miss at the bottom of the main frame). If you do not have the ball bearings then your drill could be older than 1896.

Good luck in your search for a replacement gear.

[Richard Darjes]

Of course, now I look at your pictures enlarged and I see the red spacer I was referring to! So you know your drill was made some time after 1896. Goodell Pratt was bought by Miller Falls at some point (early 1930's?) so you have a time frame at least.

I am obviously not adding much to the discussion here!

[Jim Koepke]

I too own this drill, but mine was almost complete when I found it. It was missing the springs for the chuck and may have sat unused for many decades because of that. I got advice in the early 2000's on where I could get the right size springs - cheap plastic mechanical pencils have a smaller diameter spring than ball point pens.

Though it is getting harder to find people smoking from whom to bum dead lighters, they also have smaller springs than pens or what can commonly be found in hardware stores. BIC lighters have two springs, one under the flint and one under the gas lever. Most of the cheaper disposable lighters only have one spring.

jtk