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This
fine drill was discovered at a Spicer auction in August 2015 by Sandy Moss in the Galoot Find of
A Lifetime (my terminology !). The magnificent handle is probably a replacement for a long-vanished
original handle, and the chuck
is probably original, with the same patent date as the earliest Millers
Falls drills. The much more robust frame nevertheless has a similar layout to that of the other wraparound-frame Millers Falls No.2 drills. Furthermore, the main gear bears the same number and pitch of teeth as (what I think are) its siblings: Sandy counted seventy-eight teeth on the main gear and seventeen on the single pinion gear. One important difference is the rear spindle journal, which appears to have a substantial bearing housing in the heavy frame. Perhaps there are umpteen tiny ball thrust bearings inside, like the ladder-framed No.2 drills ... that mystery awaits additional research. Otherwise, the rest of the design closely matches that of the other wraparound-frame No.2 drills, except that the main gear and crank handle are both pinned to their common shaft, whereas the wraparound-frame No.2s' main gears are held only by set screws. The locating collars on the Type O's common shaft are each held by a single set screw.
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| Sandy Moss's measurements of the Type O drill: "The length of the transverse part of the frame is 5 1/4", and the transverse width is 2 3/4" at the gear handle. "The overall length of the shaft, including the nose piece is 6 1/2". "Including the handle and the chuck, the length of the drill is 13 3/4 ". "The crank handle's straight-line length is 3 1/4", and the length of the wooden crank handle and ferrule is 3 3/8 inches." |
I get 4-7/8" for the length of the wraparound-frame of the Type L2 drill that Sandy sold me in 2008.
For mine the frame's transverse width is 2-1/4". For mine, the spindle shaft measurement from the back end to the end of the chuck body is 4-1/2". The overall length of the Type L2 drill is 15-1/2" (but it has a long, slender main handle). Center-to-center for mine is 3-3/16" and the overall length of the crank handle is just an inch-and-a-half. |