Vintage tools: Millers Falls No2 hand drill.

A while ago I found a Millers Falls No2 hand drill for a cheap price on EBay so I jumped on it. For few months it was just sitting on a shelve waiting for me to wake up. The drill is in correct condition but the handle shows some dirty green paint, maybe the previous owner used it to blend his paint stock, who knows!

Can you spot the green paint on the cap?
That flowed all over the handle

I started by disassembling the drill in pieces so to clean and lubricate gears and to restore the handles.

The main wheel is in good shape, teeth are not showing any wear, just some grease gunk.

The main wheel is in good shape.

I sanded the handles so to remove that ugly green paint. I am not sure what wood has been used but there was a reddish stain below the green paint and varnish.

One handle sanded.

After cleaning handles from dust I gave them a coat of red mahogany stain.

Handles after a coat of red mahogany stain.

Following the stain I applied 5 coats of amber shellac as a finish.

The handles after their 5th and last coat of amber shellac.

After having oiled properly all gears and bearing I put everything back together.

The final result.

Now, restoration purists and tools lovers, stop reading further as what follows may hurt your feelings.

When I started that restoration I found out that the main handle was loose. The handle was retained to the drill body by a pin, and after different tries I have been unable to remove that pin without risking to damage the handle but I needed to make that handle firm on the body. To do this I used a big hydraulic crimping tool, that I normally use while making battery cable to crimp cable lugs. I selected a pair of jaws that were just a tid smaller than the handle metal ring and I crimped the handle on the drill body. While not a conventional way of doing it this perfectly made the trick and the handle is now firm to the body.

The handle crimped on the body.

This is a very nice drill and I already like it very much. It will join my No 5 in the workshop.

No 2 and its little sister No 5 altogether.