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Other Vintage Household Electrical or Electromechanical Items For discussions about other vintage (over 25 years old) electrical and electromechanical household items. See the sticky thread for details.

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Old 6th Mar 2012, 10:27 pm   #1
unabridged
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Default Vintage Drills

Hello. As suggested in a previous thread, here is one for drills! Here is the Black and Decker airship type thing I was given. It is now minus its cable and the polishing has been started.

It is an interesting shape, but also there are no makers marks on the outside of it at all. No information on voltage, power consumption etc. What appears to be company asset number is roughly stamped into the side with a set of punches. B&D is stamped on the inside of the handle, where the mains wire is connected. And that's all there is to it! The brushes are accessible from outside.

Originally it had very brittle rubber cable on it (with string up the middle!) and a bakelite MK plug with integrated switch. Sadly the plug was far too gone. Enjoy! Any more info on it would be appreciated
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Last edited by Mike Phelan; 7th Mar 2012 at 10:21 am. Reason: Converted bushes to brushes.
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Old 7th Mar 2012, 8:24 pm   #2
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Default Re: Vintage Drills

I always wonder what happened to Selecta, see http://www.gracesguide.co.uk/File:Im...PH-Selecta.jpg
My dad had one and I used it for drilling holes in my first valve amp chassis. Mind you the choice of 2500 or 4500 was a bit useless I wonder why they made it so fast? It was replaced by a B&D with trigger speed control and it was bliss to be able to drill 3/8" holes for pots at a sensible speed!

Regards,

Paul
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Old 7th Mar 2012, 8:28 pm   #3
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Default Re: Vintage Drills

My Dad had a Bridges electric drill. I had a toy one, can't remember if it was battery or clockwork!
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Old 7th Mar 2012, 9:05 pm   #4
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Default Re: Vintage Drills

I still have my dad's "Selecta Home Workshop". Judging by the instruction manual, the high speed of the Selecta drill was to allow it to be used as a router for timber. My dad bought a router bit for his Black & Decker, but its higher speed of 2500 RPM just wasn't fast enough to give a good finish. He got a 3:1 epicyclic speed reducer with a 3/8" chuck that, used with the 900 RPM setting, worked fine when drilling 3/8" holes in steel or masonry.
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Old 7th Mar 2012, 10:22 pm   #5
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Default Re: Vintage Drills

My Dad had a Bridges 3/8 inch Electric Drill must have got it in the late 1950's. I don't remember the model, but it was only one speed and had a neon light on it which glowed when the drill was properly earthed.

I found it again when I was clearing out the house after he died, but it looked rather dangerous and the rubber covered cord had deteriorated so I binned it. Pity now.
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Old 8th Mar 2012, 10:41 am   #6
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Default Re: Vintage Drills

Ah, I never thought of routing! My dad also had a safe-d-speeder (I think that's what it was called) to reduce the speed. However you then needed a 3rd hand to hold the epicyclic casing

Regards,

Paul
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Old 8th Mar 2012, 2:14 pm   #7
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Default Re: Vintage Drills

Yes, it was called a safe-d-speeder. I still have one although haven't used it since getting a 1/2" drill with mechanical gear speed change. It was useful to prevent drill breakage, as if the drill bit jammed, you only had to let go of the gearbox casing, which then proceeded to rotate rapidly in the opposite direction. I was still using it when my son was a toddler "helping daddy", and "epicyclic gearbox" became part of his early vocabulary! I recall seeing in the shops a right-angled geared speed changer that could be used either way round to increase or decrease speed, but we never had one ourselves.

The cheapness of electric motors in real terms today was brought home by the discovery of a 1950's book of my fathers about accessories for your electric drill. As well as the power source for tools such as jig saws and lathes, there were things such as floor polishers and food mixers, all designed to be powered by domestic electric drills.
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Old 11th Mar 2012, 10:40 pm   #8
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Smile Re: Vintage Drills

Hi,
Here are a few pics of an old Wolf drill that belonged to the father of a friend of my wife's. It looks in reasonable nick and is on my to-do list when I find a bit of black rubber cable.
It had been wired with 3/.029 flat twin & earth house wiring cable and an ancient MK 5amp plug.
I'd wondered what the horizontal bit was below the chuck, and found that it contained a spare pair of (unused) brushes. I presume that it was never painted and it dates from the 1940s?
Cheers, Pete
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Old 13th Mar 2012, 7:56 pm   #9
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Default Re: Vintage Drills

That looks pretty similar to the "small" drill at the garage my father worked at in the '50s / '60s. I think there may have been some red paint on some of the parts originally, though that might just have been added for identification purposes.

The "big" drill was also a Wolf, but about three times the size with a shaped handle on the back end that you could lean your chest on whilst hanging on to a couple of short pipe handles sticking out of the sides. It had a single speed- 600rpm.
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Old 24th Feb 2013, 7:11 pm   #10
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Default Re: Vintage Drills

I have a complete Selecta Home Workshop set up together with a near mint B&D D500 single speed drill powering it. I remember it being in regular use by my dad middle 1950s.
I wonder if you could copy your instruction manual as I have been unable to find dad's original. I seem to remember it being a broad sheet folded in thirds with schematic diagrams of the various configurations for use. Thank you very much if you can help.
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Old 24th Feb 2013, 8:56 pm   #11
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Default Re: Vintage Drills

And don't forget the "Stanley-Bridges" drills; none of that double insulated plastic rubbish there, just lots of metal and (hopefully) a good earth.
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Old 24th Feb 2013, 11:16 pm   #12
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Default Re: Vintage Drills

In the late 1970's I had a Rockwell power drill, (I had worked for Rockwell). It was cased in a bright yellow plastic, but had gearbox problems. I dont recall what happened to it.

Anybody had one or still had one.

ALAN
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Old 25th Feb 2013, 9:49 am   #13
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Default Re: Vintage Drills

I've a Black & Decker D520 which I've had for nearly fifty years now.
It's the brown and gold one with the 2-speed gearbox.

Despite people saying that B&D drills were no good for heavy work, this one has really had some graft; I've always stripped and cleaned it and fitted new brushes when needed on a regular basis, though, as I do with all my power tools.
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Old 25th Feb 2013, 11:24 am   #14
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Default Re: Vintage Drills

Had a B&D D something, it was a hybrid case model, metal gearbox housing and orange plastic motor and handle section. So thats when the rot started! Having said that it performed without a problem until I killed it by extended periods of metal polishing on a bike restoration!
Have had a Bosch hammer drill with electronic speed control for 28 years, so although it's of the modern era it's getting on a bit! That has done some serious work including various hammer sessions into garage floors with 16mm reduced shank masonary drills. Has been faultless.
Not a drill but still worthy of inclusion I think, is the B&D jigsaw I inherited from my father. It's one of the classic gold painted, metal body types and must be at least 50 years old. Dad bought that new and he was always so proud of it. I needed special permission to use it and I was closely supervised! Still works perfectly and I used it as recently as 3 months ago.
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Old 25th Feb 2013, 5:04 pm   #15
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Default Re: Vintage Drills

Quote:
Originally Posted by Herald1360 View Post
The "big" drill was also a Wolf, but about three times the size with a shaped handle on the back end that you could lean your chest on whilst hanging on to a couple of short pipe handles sticking out of the sides. It had a single speed- 600rpm.
It might have been something like my Wolf 110V 4A 0.5" chuck drill. It's very slow and very powerful, but really could do with the missing top handle which screws into the casing as it is a bit of a handful if the drill bit catches. It has much more torque than Gromit's drill which was enough to set him spinning.

Ron
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Old 26th Feb 2013, 12:11 am   #16
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Default Re: Vintage Drills

I have a B&D Hedge cutter, C1962 heavy duty £19.19.6 new.
I think the field coil has gone, still in the original box, one day I may find parts.
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Old 26th Feb 2013, 2:21 am   #17
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Default Re: Vintage Drills

PDFs of scans of both sides of the double sided Selecta instruction sheet/wall chart attached. Scanned at 400dpi using the "line art" setting for clarity as the original paper is somewhat yellow. This has not reproduced the original background yellow highlighting of the headings of the original, but the highlighting did not contain any information. The original is folded into 8 sheets and is laid out to be folded that way.

The lathe attachment was an optional extra which my father never bought.

I have the original user manual booklet somewhere, possibly in the loft, but it will take some finding.

Interesting that it uses a mixture of BA and Unified threads, and not BA and Whitworth.
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File Type: pdf Selecta Instruction Sheet side 2.pdf (1.54 MB, 451 views)

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Old 26th Feb 2013, 8:45 am   #18
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Default Re: Vintage Drills

Dad had a B&D drill at his business in the 60's just like the one in the OP photo, with the hexagonal body. It was particularly low in speed and took ages to slow once you released the trigger. It wasn't very powerful either, so it wasn't up to the job for 1/2 inch bits, and the revs weren't enough for efficient use with 1/8 inch bits. It had a bit of a narrow useful range. Just so Unabridged knows what to expect when he replaces the cable....

David
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Old 26th Feb 2013, 12:37 pm   #19
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Default Re: Vintage Drills

My Wolf Sapphire is still in use from 1972??.The Black and Decker it replaced burnt out about second time i used it,at least it was under warranty.
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Old 26th Feb 2013, 2:05 pm   #20
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Default Re: Vintage Drills

Interesting that the fitting for popular types doesn't mention the Selecta drill!! Wonder if the workshop came first?

Regards,

Paul
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