When I first started work we had a very large hand drill with a big plate on top to put your chest on to get some weight behind it
They weren't to bad when used with a Phillips head screw, but you had to be ever so careful with a slot headed screw. And I found they weren't as good at unscrewing screws as screwing them in Now all you hear on site is the sound of screws being driven home with an impact driver, then when fully home, given another 5 minutes of rotation until the head is completely fek'd so to prevent any other tradesmen coming along later and pinching the bloody screws
i was brought up around restoring these things. maybe even this very one,who knows? a David Brown used by the R.A.Force. that and pile of other ones including a steam traction engine converted to a showmen's the stepfather was/is more fred dibner than the man himself. love wandering around old engineering works and shit.
My favourite and oldest thing I own is a 17th century French kitchen table It’s still used daily - I bet it could tell a storey or two !!
I used one of those once. It didn't have a clutch. I was using a 25 mm drill bit in quarter plate and it bit right at the end and took me round with it. The chest plate twisted up in my overalls and the bastard thing nearly threw me round the workshop. Happy Christmas incidentally.
Mine was up a ladder drilling holes for down pipes, damned thing was almost as big as I was. Leaning on the breast plate hanging on to both handles, damn thing jammed and tried to break both my wrists. Luckily didn't come off the ladder but had to drill all the rest of the bloody holes with a star drill and knapping hammer
the must do mod for those is put a jubilee clip on em so they don't roll away when you put em down . they are long before my time though ..
I still carry a wheel brace and an old brace and bit's in my van, don't use them as much nowadays but they still get used. Steve
Imagine being in the market for a car in 1956 and having to decide between a Hillman Minx and a Ford Zodiac.
A ‘wheel-brace’ is a crank-shaped tool for quickly undoing and doing up wheel nuts. Sometimes they have/had slipping handles but they were often just plain steel. The crank shaped drill is a ‘brace and bit’ and is/was generally used for large woodworking bits.
Since reading this thread I have realised there's very few "old things" at my place apart from me and the building! The actual oldest item is my late fathers watch and ring. My oldest three things in regular use are the Record vice in the shed of uncertain age but looks old, my Omega gold watch from '82 bought in Interlaken & my denim Levis jacket from '84 bought in Mexico. What are yours?
