Yankee 41Y drill

[Matt Lau]

This inspires me to pull mine out. I've been using a Miller Falls #2--love that thing.
However, my Bosch drills are my go to for drilling things.

[steven c newman]

Might want to check out those "Buck Rogers" drills Millers Falls made....
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This and the two Eggbeaters..
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This is the smaller of the two....
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Takes a LOT of willpower, to keep these from coming home....failed a few times

[Jim Koepke]

My current project had me installing hinges today which made me think about the "YANKEE" drill. One of mine is a modern late 1960s to early 1970s model. Another one is a Wards Master with a hole in the cap holding the bits. They are released by spinning the top to the position of the desired bit. There are number designations for the bits around the outside. The holder mechanism has a cross instead of the design used on the Yankee/Stanley models.

So today it came back to me why mine are not used very often. In softwood the small bit tends to stick, having resistance when pulling it out. This my older "YANKEE" in use:

%22YANKEE%22 in Action.jpg

The marking on this one is rather worn, but with the help of a magnifier it wasn't too difficult to read:

"YANKEE"
North Brothers
Patent 97 & 98

I do not recall all of the patent information, just the years.

The chuck is tightened by a threaded shroud instead of the later spring type.

The awl laying on the bench next to where the drill is being used is my preferred tool for small screw holes:

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The shaft on this isn't round, it is more like a flattened ellipse.

It is easy to hold and spin to bore a hole.

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It is also easy to keep the hole fairly well centered:

Holes Bored.jpg

It is easy to see the top left hole was done with the drill.

In hardwoods this may be a totally different story. Though when it comes to drilling one of the things an egg beater has going for it is when you want to withdraw the bit you can pull it while turning it or crank it backwards.

jtk

[Tom Stenzel]

My brother worked for Ma Bell and he used them all the time. He gave me a lightly broken one back in the '80s. I had to fabricate a part and I've used it since. The only problem I've had with it getting it back from the SO who discovered how handy it it.

He retired in 2008. When he left he said the tool crib still had a shelf of Yankee drills new in boxes. Seems the new guys prefer the battery operated toys and didn't use them. Those drills are probably still there.

Then again my brother always carried a brace and bits with him in his bucket truck. If the battery drill ran down he just finished the job with a brace. A sharp bit can go through a phone pole pretty quickly.

[Jim Koepke]

My brother worked for Ma Bell and he used them all the time. He gave me a lightly broken one back in the '80s. I had to fabricate a part and I've used it since. The only problem I've had with it getting it back from the SO who discovered how handy it it.

He retired in 2008. When he left he said the tool crib still had a shelf of Yankee drills new in boxes. Seems the new guys prefer the battery operated toys and didn't use them. Those drills are probably still there.

Then again my brother always carried a brace and bits with him in his bucket truck. If the battery drill ran down he just finished the job with a brace. A sharp bit can go through a phone pole pretty quickly.

During my days with Ma Bell, battery drills hadn't been made of yet.

We used bell hanger bits to drill through building walls to bring wire from the outside inside. We used the Yankee 2101 braces.

Bell hanger bits are about 18" long and a couple inches up from its tip the flutes have a small hole for stringing wire through so it could be pulled through a wall.

In those days the #41 was used almost daily.

During this time the phone companies were regulated monopolies in most markets. My knowledge is based on what is known about how it worked in California. The phone company was allowed to make a percentage of profit based on what treasury bonds were making, iirc. The profit was the cost of doing business + the percentage allowed by the Public Utilities Commission. Telephone people at the time had some of the best tools. After all, the more it cost to do business the more profit was returned on the fixed percentage.

jtk

[Jim Koepke]

Today by error the Craftsman version of this drill was brought into the house to install some hinges. Ended up using an awl that was brought along.

Upon further inspection the chuck is a two piece version of a four jaw chuck. From the bit storage and the fact that the biggest bit it could hold is 1/8" it seemed logical the eight bit set would have the sizes from 1/16" to 1/8".

Other than sticking a 1/16" bit in the work piece on my first attempt then breaking it on its second try, it seems to have a fatal flaw. The first attempt was foiled when the jaws failed to hold the bit tight enough. The jaws are tightened via a threaded collar. It looked easy to disassemble and it was. The original spring must have gone missing since the one in the jaws looked just like a piece of ball point pen spring. It was a touch weak so it was replaced with a slightly longer piece of spring.

About that fatal flaw... To tighten the jaws enough to hold a bit isn't real difficult even for my old hands. The problem is getting the bit out. When the barrel of the collar is turned it retracts the spring and pulls the lower part of the drill mechanism into its body.

One slip and you could have a drill bit through the palm of your hand or a bit shot across the room.

jtk

[steven c newman]

There is a dealer that shows up at the West Liberty, Oh Tractor Fest every Labor Day weekend.....usually has a couple boxes full of Yankee drills and drivers....I usually give the handle a shake, to check for any bits inside...
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My two....there was a Millers falls drill there, that year..
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Might be a #1095? 6" sweep. ($25....)
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Also picked this up at another vendor, last year....Stanley #4, Type 10....currently the go-to smoother in use in my shop.
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Back to Yankees...picked this oddball...
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Adapted a bit to make it a nut-driver. The awl was a "bonus"...

[steven c newman]

Ok...push drills...
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Yankees take a different drill tip than the two Millers falls ones. Yankee used a ball catch, the MF ones have a 4 jaw chuck.

As for what is laying beside these four?
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I do not have a "problem"....I can stop anytime....

[lowell holmes]

Well, they are pretty neat toys, I mean tools.

[Mike Holbrook]

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I got lucky on an auction site a few years back and got Yankee #1545 and Yankee 1530AX for something like $30 for both. I doubt that deal will show up again anytime soon. As I recall the seller had not named them so that anyone would have known what they were.

Good find Steven, 6” sweep braces can be hard to find, especially in good condition.

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6-8” sweep braces are great for driving/removing screws and bolts when using the electric tool will often bugger something up. IMHO (in my humble opinion), one of the more practical hand tools.

I was a grunt for a line crew summer of 1967-1968. There was a month or two in Charotte, NC when the temps were hitting high 90s and 100+ most days. AC was just getting popular, mostly window units, and all the #25 transformers were burning out. A #50, which we were replacing the #25s with, weighed over 700 lbs. I was 150lbs, pulling those up telephone poles with pullies. If whoever was helping turned loose I would shoot up the pole on the PDQ. I remember the crew chief grabbing my ankle once, just before I went into orbit around the “pole”. That was serious work, took me most of the night to rehydrate for the following day. We did not use any stinking electric tools to drill holes! 120 volts was tough to find on those poles and there were no battery powered electric drills.