Wednesday, February 18, 2015

Millers Falls No. 4 Ratchet Auger Handle





I found this beauty last month in an Ottawa thrift store. Unfortunately, it's missing a removable handle which could be threaded either into the top of the tool or opposite the fixed handle, depending on how you wanted to best apply pressure.  I'll have to turn something up for it.  Below, from the web, how it should look:



It's a heavy-duty tool, beautifully made. I thought that, using my old square-shanked screwdriver bits, this would be just the ticket when you really needed torque to remove recalcitrant machine screws.

Update March 18, 2003

I got around to turning a piece of steel for the handle, and a piece of oak to fit into it.  I would have preferred a closer grain on the oak, but I had to use what I had to hand.  Below, with a smaller chuck extension and the collection of screwdriver bits (Stanley Canada, Irwin, Black Diamond, P.L. Robertson) that I now keep in a box with it.



2 comments:

Andras said...

Good morning, Would yo know if I'd be able to use a 7/16" (at it's widest) square taper in this tool? Thank you, Andras

Mister G said...

It fits the standard tapered square bits that are used in brace and bits, unfortunately I don't have one at hand to measure the maximum size!