Interesting Drills

I had been after a small-ish hand drill for a while and ended up buying three at a local market!

This one ended up as being used for spares……

So that this little fella (after a good clean-up) could be put back to full time use....

It’s simply stamped “FORGIEN”- from my understanding of such things, many goods made post WWII, in Germany and other such places were marked in this way so that they could be exported and sold without prejudice. It’s just what I wanted and is great for light tasks, such as drilling 1.5mm holes for tuner screws etc.

But the really interesting one is a Millar Falls drill- at first, I thought that I’d bought a lemon- there were obviously no springs in the chuck and the handle didn’t look right- as though it had been cobbled together from a “Yankee” style screwdriver.  After some research, it turns out that the chuck is a McCoy's springless chuck and the handle is detachable so that drill bits can be stored inside it! This drill's features date it as being made between 1915 and 1921.

It’s hellishly complicated with so many parts!

After rebuilding it, it too is a joy to use. What a satisfying feeling to pick-up a piece of junk and after a bit of elbow grease have a beautiful, usable “vintage” hand tool.