[masraum]

Originally Posted by GH85Carrera

My house back then was built in 1952. There was just one phone line. in the middle of the house, with a little chair and place to write. When I wanted a second phone line run the the area where my computer was, and a phone in my bedroom I had to go to my attic and I needed holes in the header of the wall. I had to use grandpa's hand powered brace to drill the holes. Battery powered tools were just coming on the market and I did not have one. And I did not own enough extension cords to reach that area. That brace hangs on my wall in the garage next to my dwell meter and timing light.

I've got several "cordless" drills. Look171 got me started, sent me a couple, which triggered a bug in me. So on top of a Stanley brace and a smaller egg-beater drill, I've also got a Millers Falls Rose patent brace a lot like this. The colored metal is brass, not copper.
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And I've got the creme de la creme breast drill that has 5 modes that allows for locked, direct drive clockwise, direct drive counter clockwise, ratcheting cw, and ratcheting ccw in case you're in a tight spot where you can't get a full revolution of the arm. Apparently, it was useful for folks building carriages, train cars, or automobiles where they had to drill holes in wood back in the depths of the thing that was being built. They made 3 different sizes of this one. This is the largest. I want the other 2 sizes.



I've also got a brace (2 actually) John Fray 104 similar to this.



And Stanleys similar to these



and a Millers Falls corner brace like this


and a Goodell and Pratt Corner brace like this