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Thread: Brace, Egg Beater, and Bits

  1. #1

    Brace, Egg Beater, and Bits

    While I use my cordless and corded hand drills along with the drill press all the time if I could only have either electric powered drills or braces and egg beaters the muscle powered ones would win. Kinda the same with table saws and band saws. Luckily I don't have to pick but almost every drilling job can be done better with a brace and bit.

    Maybe not quite as quickly but in almost every case the results will be better and many time with less monkey motion. I guess my question is: Am I full of it or do other folks find the same results?

    BTW, my favorite brace is a Spofford type, very simple and works a treat.

    ken

  2. #2
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    My cutoff is ~3/8". Bigger than that is easier with a brace if it isn't a large Forstner bit. If smaller it depends. From ~1/4" to 3/8" is a bit of work for an egg beater. Smaller than ~1/4" is a toss up between an egg beater or electron power.

    jtk
    "A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty."
    - Sir Winston Churchill (1874-1965)

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    You are full of it & so am I and many Neanderthals. We live in this escapist world in which we are connected to our handtools and find satisfaction in that. Hand tools enable us to shape our world in a relaxed, creative process that makes us feel more human. Yes, occasionally a hand tool is more efficient than a machine, but most of the time it is not about
    efficiency, it is about the experience.

  4. #4
    Drill press is horribly inefficient… unless you need to drill a lot of precise holes quickly or you need absolute 90 degree precision – then it beats everything. I would say a power hand drill is way more efficient than a brace or egg beater and easier too. Plus, you can watch perpendicular as you drill down because you don’t really need to worry about body position. But a brace or egg beater is more fun. Usually I’m not very concerned with efficiency, or I wouldn’t really be doing things with hand tools in the first place.

    Now if I could only have one, it would be the brace and egg beater because the batteries never run out of power, and the extension cord is always long enough and you’ll never trip over it.

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    As I believe Ken mentioned in another thread, a brace and bit is easier for the user to make angled holes with. The brace & bit is easier to allign than an electric drill without any visuals to allign with. The more variable rotation speed comes in handy too. An egg beater may be even easier to allign.
    Last edited by Mike Holbrook; 06-28-2018 at 12:52 PM.

  6. #6
    Assuming the right size brace is being used, I think a brace is at least as quick as the electric. There's a woman who's in her mid- 70's in my hand tool group who tried a brace for the first time last year. She bored a 3/4 " hole through a 3" thick bench top in about a minute and a half. Told me it was less strenuous than a corded drill.

  7. #7
    Quote Originally Posted by Mike Holbrook View Post
    As I believe Ken mentioned in another thread, a brace and bit is easier for the user to make angled holes with. The brace & bit is easier to allign than an electric drill without any visuals to allign with. The more variable rotation speed comes in handy too. An egg beater may be even easier to allign.
    Quote Originally Posted by Dave Parkis View Post
    Assuming the right size brace is being used, I think a brace is at least as quick as the electric. There's a woman who's in her mid- 70's in my hand tool group who tried a brace for the first time last year. She bored a 3/4 " hole through a 3" thick bench top in about a minute and a half. Told me it was less strenuous than a corded drill.

    Another nice thing about brace and bits, want to go to a depth count the turns. Going through, no need for a backer board, feel for the lead screw. It just works better.

    ken

  8. #8
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    Have two 6" sweep braces that are always set up....one drills a pilot hole, the second drills a countersink. Much faster than using a cordless drill, or even a corded drill.

    One other "drill" to consider...a push drill....like a North Brothers Yankee one. Great for quick pilot holes for smaller screws.

  9. #9
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    I found some really nice Gimlets at hardware stores here in japan, the larger ones having a cutting face similar to what you get on brace bits. They work wonderfully and are quite compact, fitting nicely in a toolbox.

    A brace or eggbeater allows for more accuracy though -- it's hard to keep a gimlet perfectly vertical.

    I love all of the above and prefer them to using an electric drill, which tends to be bulky and hard to sight / hold squarely. Also way quieter, which is essential if you live in an apartment.

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    My Wood Owl drill bits work exceptionally well in a brace. Just be ready when the lead screw engages because it will pull through just about any wood at a consistent rate, perfect for Ken’s count the rotations method. I often use them in 8” braces. My two 6” braces have phillips head and star screw driving bits in them. Although I often use quick change hex shank bit holders in them so I can change between hex shank screw driver bits and hex shank smaller drill bits. The Wood Owl bits have larger shanks which benefit from a brace that can exert a little more torque.

  11. #11
    Quote Originally Posted by Mike Holbrook View Post
    My Wood Owl drill bits work exceptionally well in a brace. Just be ready when the lead screw engages because it will pull through just about any wood at a consistent rate, perfect for Ken’s count the rotations method. I often use them in 8” braces. My two 6” braces have phillips head and star screw driving bits in them. Although I often use quick change hex shank bit holders in them so I can change between hex shank screw driver bits and hex shank smaller drill bits. The Wood Owl bits have larger shanks which benefit from a brace that can exert a little more torque.
    Mike,

    I've thought about buying a set of Wood Owl's but I don't think they will work in a Spofford style brace. Are they better than a good set of Jennings?

    ken

  12. #12
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    Ken, I have old Irwin and Jennings bit sets. The threads in those bits frequently do not hold, once they start spinning they heat up. Hold on tight when the threads on the Wood Owls (WDs) make puchase as they almost always pull through any wood. I am not sure if it is: the alloy, some sort of coating or tighter maunufacturing standards but the WDs are almost imposible to over heat, even when used continuously in heavy electric drills.

    We used one Wood Owl bit to drill many of the large holes for rungs in a Widsor Chair class I took. We put the WD bit in a heavy, corded, electric drill and drilled all the remaining holes for all the chairs in the class. Drew Langsner had been sharpening bits constantly due to heat dulling the ones he had. Drew was amazed that the one WD bit was just as sharp after drilling all the rest of the holes for the classes chairs. I still have not had to sharpen that bit.

    You also need to be aware that although these bits are marked as imperial they are in fact metric “equivalents”. I went round and round with Lee Valley trying to determine if they had somehow found actual imperial bits from Wood Owl, turns out the ones they carry are actually metric too. You want the Ultra Smooth bits with three spurs. The shafts on these bits are heavy duty, with 6 flat sides. They fit my 8” brace well, not sure about how they might fit a Spofford brace, although the flat sides should provide solid registration for a screw.
    Last edited by Mike Holbrook; 06-29-2018 at 12:51 PM.

  13. #13
    I do occasionally use my brace and bit sets, not often, but enough to keep them handy. Never cared for eggbeater drills, they just seemed like a lot of work. Both the cordless drill and driver get used the most. They probably are my most used tools overall, but I don't exclusively do the neanderthal thing; I don't have the time (or desire) to be hand tool only. I do use push drills fairly often, they are quite handy when you need to do small holes and the weight of the cordless is inconvient.

    As far as cordless drills and drivers go, especially now with the lightweight quick charge LIon batteries, they are the greatest thing to woodworking and tools in general since they figured out how to put the beer on the inside of the can

    We can pretend otherwise, but remembering back to having to drill multiple out of position holes by hand or with a heavy corded drill (with no brake), there is no way I would want to go back. Fiddling in the shop with hand tools is fun and a luxury for most, but not always an efficient way to do things timely.

  14. #14
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    Maybe give a Yankee Screwdriver a try? Nah..too much like work, right?
    IMG_3977 (640x480).jpg
    Push drills..helps when they are each set up to a different size...saves fiddling with a bit..
    IMG_3976 (640x480).jpg
    Screwdrivers....wide range of tips.....some are even spring loaded too....no battery to charge, either.

  15. #15
    Quote Originally Posted by steven c newman View Post
    Maybe give a Yankee Screwdriver a try? Nah..too much like work, right?
    IMG_3977 (640x480).jpg
    Push drills..helps when they are each set up to a different size...saves fiddling with a bit..
    IMG_3976 (640x480).jpg
    Screwdrivers....wide range of tips.....some are even spring loaded too....no battery to charge, either.
    Well, if we are going to add screwdrivers to the discussion

    I've got that big Miller's Falls one; I like it for drawer slide screws. Lee Valley has (or at least had) an adapter to use it with driver bits. The grey handled Stanley one gets used for small cabinet hinge screws that might strip out with a cordless. I also have one (with the plastic storage handle) in my electrical tool box with screwdriver and bradawl bits for on the fly stuff when I didn't bring the cordless.

    I tend to throw one of those silver North Bros push drills in the box when I need to do just a few pilot holes on site. It's easier than lugging the cordless and charger (they always die at the worst time).

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