Yankee drill

[john k]

Saturday we went to the antique mall.  I picked up the one quart pump oiler I saw there last time.   Its a Golden Rod, made in Hastings Ne. and is in good working condition.  Outside was  a tent sale, and gave the tables a quick once over til I spotted something.  An eggbeater hand drill was laying on a pile, and I maneuvered around to pick it up.  Price was high, it looked pretty good.   Turned to look at it in better light, and saw that the wood, the crank handle, the big handle and the extra handle were all original.   Then I saw the 3 position speed lever.  No cracks, or anything missing, and correct original nickel plated chuck.  It is a Yankee no.445, by North Bros.  It is much larger than the 1530 eggbeater, and is almost as large as a breast drill.  It was also more money than I've paid for old tools in a long time.  I whittled the price down a little, and decided it would be my weekends tool purchase.  There aren't any on the bay right now, does anyone have one here?   Something about eggbeaters speak to me, have about 15 of them now, but none this size. 

[bonneyman]

I gotten a couple due to the forum, but no big ones. A nice Millers Falls No. 5A, a Dunlap that I restored, and a small Stanley Handyman. I think I have another mid-sized egg beater, but can't seem to locate it at the moment.

For small jobs they are a whole lot easier to pull out than a corded drill and power cord.

[HeelSpur]

Very nice job restoring your piece.

[wvtools]

Ward's (2000) book on Yankee tools lists that drill at 40-55 for good minus to good plus, which I would say is about right.  I can still get a good price on the larger Yankee hand drills or their breast drills.  Regular eggbeater and breast drill prices have dropped a lot.

The handle on that one comes off to expose a hollow magazine for holding bits.  It was offered from 1916 to 1946, and was discontinued when Stanley took NB over.

[john k]

I see 12 Millers Falls, and 25 Stanley egg beaters for every Yankee I see.   These drills also seem to have suffered a lot of owner abuse and neglect.   The 3rd handle on the side is usually missing.  They get dropped on the main handle, and the chucks are usually messed up.  Some I wonder if they were ever oiled since purchase, and were hung in a dusty shop.   The handle comes off, and is of course, empty.   There are some nice Millers Falls, and Goodell-Pratt drills in some of the antique shops, from 50-80 dollars, and not near as nice as this one.  I usually have two egg beaters on my work bench, ready to go to work.

[amertrac]

I have about 30 hand drills in an old foot locker in the garage, They are there because it is so expensive to ship when you try to sell them . I have from most mfg from 8 inch to 24 inch  bob w.