Craftsman (Millers Falls) Hand Drill

Craftsman hand drill. It seems identical in every way to a Millers Falls 2A.

I have a Millers Falls 2A hand drill that I bought on eBay last year.  I didn’t read the fine print (my fault, not the seller’s) and when it arrived I saw that it was missing one of the jaws from the chuck, rendering it unusable.

In the fall, I found another hand drill at a flea market that I assumed was a Millers Falls 2A.  It was in pretty rough shape and the gears wouldn’t turn due to rust.   I paid $3 for it, thinking that I would use it for parts.  Both drills sat untouched for the past six months or so while I’ve worked on other projects.  While cleaning up the shop recently, I came across the flea market hand drill and started to take it apart.  I started to work on it, and before long the project somehow morphed from a parts recovery, to a full tool restoration.  Since I wasn’t originally planning on restoring the drill, I didn’t take any “before” photos.  Damn!

When I cleaned the grime off the drive handle, I discovered that the drill was not marked as Millers Falls.  Instead the drive handle was stamped “Craftsman Made in USA 1071”

The drive / turning handle is stamped “Craftsman Made in USA 1071”

It appears to me in every other way to be a Millers Falls 2A drill.  I searched online and found several links to Craftsman hand drills that were made by Millers Falls, but they were all different models and none were a 2A.

The best info that I have found online about Millers Falls drills (and tool restorations in general) is the www.WKfinetools.com website.  This link will take you to an overview of the number 2 drill.

I had a hard time dismantling the hand drill.  The pinion gear closest to the handle was rusted solid to the shaft.  I managed to pinch the gear between some scraps of softwood in my bench vice and used some locking pliers to turn the shaft until the gear broke free.

A view of the back showing the drive wheel and pinion gears.

Once it was all apart, I cleaned all of pieces with a soft wire wheel in my bench grinder.  This removed all the rust and old paint.  Even the parts inside the chuck had some surface rust, but all were cleaned, oiled, and reassembled.  I polished all of the chromed parts (the chuck and ferules) and the drive handle on a buffing wheel mounted on my bench grinder.

Another reverse view.

After paint removal, I cleaned all of the parts with spirits and then masked and painted them.  I let the paint cure for a couple of days before I removed the masking tape.

All repainted, polished, and shiny.

The handle shaft happened to be the same diameter as the hole in the drive wheel, so I chucked it up in my electric drill and spun the drive wheel to make it easy to sand.  I sanded the exposed metal of the drive wheel up to 400 grit and this left a very nice satin finish to the edge.

I sanded the exposed metal of the drive wheel to 400 grit. This left a nice satin finish.

I sanded all of the wooden parts to remove the old crumbling finish.  I then applied a coat of Minwax mahogany gel stain and followed this with three coats of Watco wipe on poly.  I sanded the finish back with 320 grit paper to level the surface and applied two more coats of the poly to finish.

I polished the drive handle arm, the screws, and all the chromed parts on my buffing wheel.

So here it is all done.  The gears turn beautifully.  There is no play in the mechanism at all.  I should now have a hand drill that will give me many years of service.  I still however have a Millers Falls 2A that is in good shape but missing a jaw. So much for using the Craftsman drill for parts!  I guess the other one will sit on the shelf until I figure out what to do with it.

All finished an ready for many years of use.