( Follow me down a hand drill powered rabbit hole!)
The handsome polished alloy power tools pictured in the above ad were the cream of the crop. A circular saw, jig saw, drill, and sander. Nice tools that any man would be mighty proud to own and use. The only problem was that they were expensive, not many guys could drop that much cash on a power tool, and their Wive's didn't want to spend too much on a gift for their Man's hobby. You never know if he would eventually lose interest in his new woodworking hobby. What to do?
Black and Decker had an idea.
Why not make a line of accessories that could be used with a basic hand drill? The drill was the "entry level tool " as well as the power source. If the novice became interested in more demanding wood craft activities he could expand his opportunities without breaking the bank!
Black and Decker obviously wasn't making any apologies for this product.
At the bottom left you can see the drill attached to the mechanism. I picked up mine from an estate sale. The previous owner had used a lot of trim pieces to fair in the cabinets that he had installed in his garage. I found it to be pretty useful for cutting wood and I even used it to cut thin metal. It worked fine until the rubber drive wheel "tire" cracked and fell off! The tool sat for several years until I decided to see if I could fix it. I ended up cutting a strip of rubber mat and stapled the ends together. I made the band small enough that it had to stretch a bit to go on the drive wheel. I had already cleaned and lubed up all the bearing surfaces. My initial test was positive. I sliced strips off of a scrap of wood flooring then cut a wavy line, cutting it into two pieces.
Several different manufacturers sold these drill press outfits. The hand drill is inserted in the jig and powers the drill press. Not a bad idea. It is sometimes difficult to drill a hole that is perfectly perpendicular to the surface, as well as to the desired depth by hand. It also makes it quicker to drill a series of holes.
This is a more basic attachment that also functions as a drill press, but it also allows does more. Using this attachment, the drill can be used to make accurate diagonal holes. It also has a V block on the base to drill accurate holes in tubing or round stock. I had a Black and Decker branded unit that came in handy for several jobs.
This is one of the most basic set ups. The bracket attaches to the work bench and will hold the drill securely. Then sanding, buffing and even cutting wheels are chucked in the immobile drill. Now you have a bench grinder.
I'd really like to find one of these drill powered belt sanders. I wonder if it uses a standard size abrasive belt?
Now to something a bit more special. I'd never seen a circular saw conversion. Later I found a video demonstrating it's use. The saw used in the video did not have a protective rotating shield, it just spun the saw blade out in the open!
At least this saw has the protective blade guard.
This has to be the high point of the collection. A hand drill powered wood lathe!
I found a couple of videos. The first shows the actual set up and use of the lathe. The guy takes a rough piece of wood and turns it down into a file handle. It's hard to understand the presenter's English but use the closed caption option. The second video just displays the lathe components but not their set up and use. It looks a special chuck would hold the circular three jaw "lathe chuck." The lathe in the video looks brand new and never used.
I found a third video where a guy turned a snowman on this type of lathe.
After I graduated from high school I took a couple of semesters of technical night school. The subjects were basic machine shop procedures and welding. We did arc and gas welding. I have always been interested in machine tools and just recently I looked up a Smithy ad and ordered their catalog. Those little ads were in the back of the automotive magazines that I grew up reading. They proclaimed."Fix anything!" Their stuff is expensive, but it is probably better quality than what you would find at Harbor Freight. Of course there's no sense in having expensive, high capability equipment if you don't have a real need for it, or the knowledge and ability to actually use it.
There was no end to the creativity of the B&D engineers. The above photo is most instructive. It looks like you could attach your circular saw under the metal table to end up with a totally unsafe, exposed blade, table saw! On the left it looks like a palm sander attachment. Under the circular saw we find a jig saw. There's even a hedge cutter attachment! Some of these are more than a little frighteningly looking. A hand drill is built to be used with two hands, there's usually a threaded fitting to attach a side grip. That orientation looks like it could make these hybrid tools quite a "handful" for the user. Especially until he gained familiarity with the set up. One hand always had to be positioned to squeeze the trigger.
So was this stuff actually any good? Did it serve any purpose except to separate the customer from his hard earned dollars?
A hand held drill is usually the first power tool that someone will buy. Naturally this will lead to buying basic attachments like drill bits, a sanding disc, a grinding wheel, a wire wheel and maybe a polishing pad. You have to hold the piece steady (somehow!) and bring the tool to the work. A vise, or even a couple of clamps can hold the piece in place.
Note: Until recently electric drills were just drills. You couldn't drive power screws with them, you'd just burn them up. The modern drill/ driver was not available until the early '90's. Makita didn't offer theirs until 1991.
In the late '50's and early '60's most of these tools were made in the U.S. There wasn't a bunch of cheaply made foreign tools flooding the market. I don't know the pricing of home work shop power tools back then, but the inflation calculator tables don't tell the whole story. Back then the average working guy didn't make that much money, and was often the sole breadwinner. My Dad was UAW, a good union job working for General Motors. I found some of his old pay stubs from the mid 1950's I think that he only cleared around 70.00. Still he saved, worked overtime, sometimes even a second job, at the docks or cannery. As sole breadwinner, he was able to provide for our family, buy a house, and even an occasional new car.
I think that this line of tools would have appealed to someone like him.
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