# Millers falls hand drill dis-assembly



## Benvolio (Feb 10, 2013)

So I picked this old millers falls quite cheap.

My plan is to do a full restoration including re-spraying.

But there's one last pain in the bum pinion gear that won't release from the frame.

There aren't any pins holding it in, nothing unscrews and I can't seem to figure out the trick to remove it.

Has anyone got any bright ideas??

Thanks

Ben!








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## Benvolio (Feb 10, 2013)




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## HorizontalMike (Jun 3, 2010)

You may just have to tape it off when refinishing the frame and then regrease with the pinion in-place. Looks like it will be a very nice restoration.


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## paratrooper34 (Apr 27, 2010)

Ben, I have a MF drill like yours that is apart right now. The one thing that seems different from yours and mine is the threaded end on the top handle. Mine doesn't have that. Instead, mine has a shaft that the handle was connected to that runs to the webbing below the gear. The threaded piece on your handle does not appear to go down to the web. So that gear has to turn on something. That piece has to be in there and is either held in with a pin like mine or yours has been modified (broken in the past?) and the shaft for the gear is simply floating in there.

Here is what mine looks like:



















Maybe you can get it to fall out or give it a rap or two to loosen it and it should come out.


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## sikrap (Mar 15, 2009)

I suggest you Google "George's Basement". He has a lot of tutorials on restoring old hand drills, braces, etc. I suspect you'll find the info you need there.


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## Tim457 (Jan 11, 2013)

Heh, I've got one of these, but mine is a model 5A, which was made from 1957-64 apparently. I'd like to remove the pinions as well because it needs some lubrication and cleaning, but the pins seem to be made in a way that is difficult to remove them. Any details on how you guys got yours out would be appreciated.

http://oldtoolheaven.com/hand_drills/drill.htm has some good general info too. Dave, I didn't see any tutorials there just type studies. Do you have any specific links?


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## Benvolio (Feb 10, 2013)

Paratrooper34 - hmm, if only I had that easy pin! I have a suspicion that I don't want to entertain that it's all secured vertically from inside the tubular top of the frame far beyong the reach of long nose pliers. if that's the case I'll just mask off the pinion and work with it in situ.

Sikrap - thanks for the link. Couldn't find any info on working with restoring the tools - only trivia about them. I'll email the chap and ask his opinion though

Tim, well first off, we have the same drill, so thanks for saving me the time looking to date it…. with the secret compartment in the handle for all the special drill bits you don't want anyone to know about, right?

Secondly, the the pins came out a treat for me. They go all the way through the metal so a punch and a light tap with a 6 oz hammer was enough to knock them through with no probems at all.

For me this whole restoration started because the drill was a pain to turn, but when I had it all out, I realised the main source of friction was because the spindle on which the flywheel is mounted had never in it's life been greased!! So, Tim I suggest you save yourself the trouble of dis-mantling the pinions and re-greasing the race bearings and slap some grease on the main spinle to see if that works for you.


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## Tim457 (Jan 11, 2013)

Glad I could help a little. And you say you keep drill bits in yours? Hmph, waste of a secret compartment, I'd say. I'll try just some greasing and see how it goes. Hopefully saved me some time. If not I'll look at the pins again, mine seem to be hammered flat at one end. Thanks for the tip.


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## sikrap (Mar 15, 2009)

Hmmm, I know I've used the tutorial on the 2101 brace, and a guy on another forum was talking about using one to rebuild a MF egg beater, but I can't seem to find very many. I think I'll have to email him and see what happened. Sorry about that.


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## Tim457 (Jan 11, 2013)

Well I finally got around to working on this drill and all I did was oil the various joints and the two holes that look like they might be oil holes with 3 in 1 oil (light machine oil more or less), and it worked great. Went from barely moving to running pretty well. Each time I pick it up and spin it a bit it spins better. The straight fluted drill point bits that came in the handle work pretty well, I've never seen them before. Now I have a scrap piece with lots of extra holes in it. I also found a couple articles by the Schwarz on restoring these hand drills.


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## BurlyBob (Mar 13, 2012)

Check out WK tools.com or Wk fine tools.com. I found them and they've got a couple of very details articles about restoring those drills. I'll be tackling a similar project later this summer. Good Luck


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