Woodworking Magazine Weblog

As you might remember, we have a bit of a competition going among some of the women attending the Woodworking in America conference this week. Megan Fitzpatrick, Heather Griffin (one of the conference organizers) and Kari Hultman from the blog The Village Carpenter are all vying to be the best borer.

As a result, they'll be competing in the Hand Tool Olympics, sinking a 3/4" bit through yellow pine to see who is the fastest (points off for a hole that isn't plumb).

Today we gave Heather a few pointers on boring, then Megan showed us how she was doing. Then Megan tried to kick Heather in the head. Really. It's in the movie.

By the way, apologies to everyone in advance here. I called both of them "girls" during this short video. Yes it took only 1:09 for my Southerness to shine through. In Arkansas we call 70-year-old grandmothers "girls." And until my voice changed, they called me "girl," too.

In any case, the boring climax of this competition will occur at the Saturday-night banquet at Woodworking in America. It's a full card: Roy Underhill and a catfight.

— Christopher Schwarz

I mean, who doesn't like a good girl fight?

In high school, fights among the boys were boring. Lots of posturing. Maybe some shoving. At best they might clasp into some Greco-Roman grip that would immobilize both of them for up to five minutes. Yawn.

Give me Heather "Cat Food" Barker vs. Tammy "Runs With Scissors" Gentry any day. There was always some hair pulling. The occasional dirty punch. And, if you got lucky, some good bloody fingernail scratches.

For those of us who buy old tools, one of the fantasies involves time travel. Wouldn't it be cool to walk into a hardware store in the late 19th century and buy a new Stanley Bed Rock plane off the shelf? Or how about an entire set of chisels from James Swan?

Until we build a time machine, we're just going to have to be satisfied with the work of Wiktor Kuc, who rebuilds hand drills to better-than-new glory.

Back in April I wrote a blog entry about a Millers Falls No. 5 that Kuc restored. Last week he loaned me a Millers Falls 2A for evaluation. I was so blown away by the tool, I had to show off some photos here on the blog. And I also decided to break the color barrier to do it.

And I wasn't the only one who was impressed. This drill was sitting on my desk a few days ago when Publisher Steve Shanesy stopped by. He picked up the hand drill and had a confused look on his face.

"Did Millers Falls start making these again?" he asked. "This is incredible."

Then Steve did what I did when I got the drill: He looked at the knurling on the chuck. I have a beloved 2A that I use all the time in my work and I thought my drill was minty. Apparently I don't know minty. The chuck on Wiktor's drill looks like it should still be covered in lubricant from the factory floor. It's just that perfect.

The entire frame has been repainted and baked. Not a flake or worn spot can be found. The wooden parts have been replaced with new turned parts – plus new ferrules. The only evidence I can find on this drill that it is not 5 minutes old (instead of 40+ years old) is that the drive gear has the slightest evidence that it was once pockmarked by rust. The rust is gone, but the tiny pits remain, if you look close enough.

In use, the thing is as good as it looks. All the gears mesh tightly and the crank handle spins with very little effort thanks to the thorough de-gunking from Kuc.

Of course, there is an ethical issue here to be debated. When I posted my last blog entry I received a fair number of private e-mails from people who were worried that restoration work like this could easily get out of hand. That anything other than a gentle cleaning ruins a tool's status with collectors. And even if it were a user tool in question, one should only do what it takes to get the tool running again. Removing the patina of use erases the tool's beauty and the evidence of the craftsmen who used it before.

These are good points that should be debated. Here's my take: I see these drills at every tools sale and flea market I haunt. They show up on eBay like clockwork. As far as I know there are enough of these drills for 100 museums dedicated to the great hand drills of Millers Falls.

Even someone with Kuc's work ethic shouldn't be able to deplete our supply of Millers Falls drills.

And Kuc is providing a service that might not be obvious. I love old tools and their patina, but there are lots of customers who will buy only new tools. I once spent a half hour begging a guy to buy an old brace instead of a new one. No matter how excellent (and inexpensive) the old ones were, he had to buy new. And this guy isn't alone.

So if you like old tools and want a vintage hand drill, here's what you should do: Visit OldToolHeaven.com – the best site for researching Millers Falls products. Pick out a few of the drills you like and start haunting the flea markets and online auction sites. I guarantee you'll find a decent drill for about $25 that will work with little or no restoration work on your part.

Or, if you like new and shiny, then visit WKTools.com and browse through his selection. Kuc has excellent taste in drills; I didn't see any of the low-rent hand drills that were intended for light-duty on his site. Just the premium iron.

— Christopher Schwarz

Today I'm abandoning a prototype design I've been working on this week between bouts of tending our gerund farm. I'd like to have a Viking funeral for this little end table, but I'm sure the fire inspector would scowl.

Despite the failed design, the experience hasn't been a total loss. While Senior Editor Robert W. Lang wasn't looking, I snitched his Bosch I-Driver, which I've been using all week. You see, I'm in the market for a new cordless drill. My 12-volt tools are more than five years old and feel like they weigh a ton compared to the newest generation of tools.

The I-Driver, what Bosch calls the PS10-2, is just about everything I want in a cordless tool. Where to start? The sucker is built like a tank. Everything is tightly constructed on this tool; many low-priced drills feel like they are going to fall apart on you (and we've had several flame out on us over the years as well).

Second: I love the pivoting head. The chuck pivots 90°, which allows you to get into places that no other drill will go. The low-profile chuck also aids in making this the sneakiest drill I've ever used. The chuck accepts ¼" hex-shank tooling, which some will see as a downside, but I consider it a minor inconvenience for the low profile.

What else? The tool goes and goes. Yes, it's only 10.8 volts, but it took me a long time to drain the battery – and these batteries are a couple years old and have lots of cycles on them. Other plusses: It has a fine clutch (not all right-angle dills do, which is stupid). Plus, the oversized trigger allows you to use two fingers, so your control of the speed is greatly enhanced.

I think I've found my next drill. Sure, it's not going to easily spin 1/16" twist bits, but that's what I have my Millers Falls eggbeater drill for, right?

And now to see if we have any gasoline in the shop. I have a prototype to deal with.

— Christopher Schwarz

The best hand drills ever made came out of the Millers Falls factory in the first half of the 20th century. While many people used these drills for boring holes in metal, the tools proved remarkably adept at becoming the first generation of cordless drills for woodworking.

These drills are today called eggbeater drills because of the way the drive mechanism works. The main gear turns either one or two pinions on the tool’s shaft to turn the chuck backward or forward – just like an old kitchen eggbeater.

My favorite eggbeater drills are the Nos. 2, 2A and 5 made by Millers Falls. These drills were made to an astonishingly high degree of precision, and are easily comparable to tools manufactured today by Lie-Nielsen Toolworks, Veritas, Wenzloff & Sons, Adria or Gramercy.

The eggbeater drills are fairly common at flea markets, but they are also usually in dogmeat shape. The gears are rusted. The bearings are gummed up. The wood knobs are dried out and cracked. The frames have lost all their paint.

But now Wiktor Kuc, the owner of WKTools.com and WKFineTools.com, is restoring and selling these drills on his website and on eBay. He recently sent me a Millers Falls No. 5 that he has restored, and I am just stunned by the quality of the restoration.

This tool looks better than any example of a Millers Falls I’ve ever seen. It looks good no matter how close you examine it. Inside the chuck. At the seam between the ferrule and the handle. Where the pinions mesh with the main gear.

Kuc says he’s been restoring these kinds of drills for a year. He’s been learning the best way to disassemble and clean the tools, how to apply principles from jewelers to polish the metalwork, and how to deal with the dried-out wood.

“I started doing this for myself,” Kuc says. “I love to restore old tools. I read Herb Keane’s book (‘Restoring Antique Tools’) and it blew my roof off. I had to learn to do that.”

Since he started restoring drills (and some braces), Kuc’s resurrected more than 130 Millers Falls drills, 30 Goodell-Pratt drills and a number of braces.

He takes all the drills apart as much as possible, strips them clean and then rebuilds them so they look and work perfectly. The ones he can restore to their full glory Kuc sells on his web site after four to five coats of paint and refinishing everything. The drills that he cannot get perfect he sells on eBay at a reduced price, though they are functionally perfect.

The perfect drills cost between $60 and $110, depending on their rarity. On eBay, the current crop of drills cost between $50 and $90. Are they worth it? Absolutely. If you want a cordless drill that will never run out of juice (until you run out of juice) an eggbeater like this is ideal for any toolbox.

These tools have small chucks that are great for furniture-scale twists and brad-point bits. I use hand drills all the time when making pilot holes, especially for screws or nails.

And one more thing: If you already have a Millers Falls drill, Kuc also sells reproduction parts for these drills that are usually missing, such as the side knobs and the bits that are stored in the handles.

Millers Falls drills are very common, so if you don’t want a restored one you’ll be able to find them at garage sales, flea markets and eBay (they are not scarce by any measure). But if you want the best – a tool that looks as good as it works, check out Kuc’s selection. Highly recommended by me (and banned by wivesagainstschwarz.com).

— Christopher Schwarz

Though my 12-volt cordless drill is always close at hand, I keep my brace and bit just as close. My brace and my augers allow me to drill deep holes in stout stock that my cordless drill struggles with. The brace also gives me more precision when boring to a certain depth because it's easy to take things slow.

Plus – and I know I'm going to take some grief for this statement – I think it's about the same amount of work to bore a ¾" hole with a brace as it is with a cordless drill. Sometimes we forget that electric drills require a fair amount of strength to control when drilling sizable holes.

The only real trick to using a brace and bit is to learn to sharpen the augers (it's easier than filing your fingernails) and to get a decent used brace. Please don't buy a new one. I have yet to find a new brace that is anything more than a shadow of the vintage ones.

I've used a lot of braces in my lifetime – it was the only tool my father and I had for boring bolt holes in joists when we were building our houses on our farm. And I have a few favorite brands that have good chucks and a smooth ratcheting action. Here's the best news: The very best braces ever made can still be found for about $10 at flea markets, tool swaps and (if you shop with care) on eBay.

By far, my favorite brace is the North Bros. Yankee 2101A brace. It is the Mercedes of the brace world. I first got my hands on one at my grandfather's house. He worked for Western Electric and the Yankee 2101A was standard equipment for Western Electric/Bell System employees who installed phone equipment. He had one that he used around the house and in his woodshop. That first brace spoiled me.

What's so good about it? Lots. The alligator-style chuck jaws close tightly and quickly on square-shanked auger bits or round-shanked twist bits. The ratcheting chuck runs like a top. The ratcheting chuck is a nice feature on high-end braces. The ratcheting allows you to work up against walls and to use your arms in tight spaces or more efficiently (some motions with a brace are more tiring than others). You can run the ratcheting either in forward or reverse, just like on a ratcheting wrench.

Most ratcheting braces have a fairly coarse ratcheting action. Each click shakes the tool. The North Bros. brace, however, is as smooth as silk and is quiet, like the ticking of a fine mechanical wristwatch.

All the knurling on all the parts is quite fine. The pad at the top fits tightly and rotates smoothly. I even like the handles, which are some sort of rubber or composite. They are very durable and comfortable. I've bought about a dozen of these in the last five years, usually for $10 to $20. They're fairly common in the used market. (Just look out for the ones marked "Stanley." After Stanley took over North Bros., a Philadelphia company, the quality declined.)

I've fixed up all of the braces (they didn't need much, usually just a cleaning) and have sent them out to other woodworkers or tool aficionados as gifts. I have other brands that I really like as well, including Peck, Stow and Wilcox. If you want to read more about braces and the manufacturers, I recommend Sanford Moss's excellent site: SYDNAS SLOOT. Sanford also sells a lot of braces, so if you're looking for one, he's a good man to know.

About the Augers
Once you get a good brace, you need to sharpen the auger. It's simple work with an auger bit file. An auger bit file is a file with two arrow-shaped ends. On one end the faces of the tool have file teeth, but the edges are toothless. On the other end of the tool, the edges have teeth but the faces do not. These sections without teeth are called "safe edges" and allow you to file in localized areas. You can get auger bit files from a wide variety of sources for less than $10.

When you sharpen an auger (or any tool), the less you sharpen it, the better. If you file aggressively you'll only ruin the cutting geometry of the auger and it won't cut butter. There are two places you need to file: the cutting lip and the inside of the spurs. Anyplace else that you file will probably make things worse.

First work the cutting lip. The lip levers out the waste and pushes it up the flutes. Put the auger point down against some scrap and gently file the lip. Mimic the existing edge geometry; secondary bevels won't help you here. I'll take four strokes or so until the lip gets shiny. Then I stop.

The spurs score the rim of the hole and allow the cutting lip to lever the waste up cleanly. File only the inside of the curves. The filing motion is more complex because the spur is vaguely football-shaped. As a result, I like to clamp the auger upright in a vise. Again, mimic the existing edge geometry and gently file the entire surface of the interior of the spur.

Don't file the outside of the spur. Bad things can happen.

If the lead screw of the auger bit gets clogged you can clean it out with dental floss. Other than that, there's not much to maintaining your auger bits.

Once you've sharpened up your first auger, try making a hole with your brace in some scrap. A sharp auger will beaver through wood at a remarkable rate. And then I think you'll be hooked.

— Christopher Schwarz