Stanley Handyman 1/4" electric drill, inherited from my Dad, Not sure what year he bought it. I remember him using it when I was a small child. Still works well, amazing the cord is in great shape also. Keyless chuck. I really like the finger reliefs on the drill grip, not that you really need then with this small drill.

Anyone know the years these were sold, or anything else about it?

Keyless chucks are older than most people think, they are described as a 'new' feature for electric drills in 1929. However, the design internally is different for those than for the recent ones that are based on the Jacobs chuck (3 fingers and a ring gear), many of the early ones were collet designs (the adjusting collar screws in and  clamps wedged fingers into the bit)

The Stanley handyman' series became widely advertised just after WWII, probably due to the large do-it-yourself home-workshop trend that was becoming widespread at the time. Your drill appears to be based on the keyed chuck model 04, which otherwise looks identical.

My guess would be that it's from the early 50's, and probably not much after that. There is no mention that I can find for advertising for it, I'm wondering if it didn't work out so well (perhaps too $$?)
The second wave of keyless designs (Jacobs) is from the 60's-70's  and more or less comes at the time of the first cordless drills, I don't think that drill is that recent...
(Black and decker claims the first cordless, in '61, but they were way late with the keyless chuck)

Further investigation reveals it is not quite a keyless chuck, it is a jacobs model 6144, patent 2,346,706

http://www.datamp.org/patents/displayPatent.php?pn=2346706&id=40497

PDF here   http://www.freepatentsonline.com/2346706.html

There is an allen socket on the side, you rotate it to match the dot on the allen to match the hash on the chuck, this gets the cam at the lowest point, then insert your bit and tighten the collar by hand, if it is not tight enough for you rotate the allen to get a good tight grip.



here it is retracted


now allen is rotated to extend it just a bit to tighten the chuck


the center part has to be tapped back down after you rotate the allen back to the hash marks, it must be dirty.

Mine appears to be a slightly different design than the original patent as it does not show the allen cam. I will take more pictures if I can get it disassembled this weekend.

I managed to remove the cam block with a little help of time, liquid wrench, and a very powerful hard drive magnet, here is what it looks like inside the chuck, the cam is at the bottom of the well, it has about .015" difference from low point to high point



.

Cam block side view
.


.

bottom view
.




So it bears no resemblance to the patent number on the chuck itself, strange.

I think I will restore this old drill to its former glory, any suggestions on paint , I would like to try and stay with original silver and orange, orange looks real close to the old chevy orange engine paint Krylon sells, or did sell, have not bought any in a while,

.

very nice.  What camera are you using for such great close up shots?  Tripod or free-hand?

Any update on the restoration of this drill?

I am curious as well...

I did find an ad for this drill, but with a more standard chuck, dated 1949...
(And the handyman label is upsidedown)
http://store.vintagepaperads.com/servlet/-strse-47068/1949-Stanley-No-04,/Detail

In case you're still doing the restoration, I picked one of these up at a Goodwill today, in excellent shape. Bright orange color, etc. If you'd like some photos, I'd be glad to send.

Quote from: bc_z on September 05, 2011, 12:44:09 AM
very nice.  What camera are you using for such great close up shots?  Tripod or free-hand?

Almost any digital will take excellent close ups.  I have a couple of less exoensive tgat do as well, and sometimes better than, my Nikon digital SLR with a $600 macro lense.  The reason is that the smaller lense cameras will always have a greater depth of field, to compensate for the small lense.

To get a great close-up every time, do the following:

1. Set your camera for macro mode (that is usually a picture of a flower)
2. Use a tripod or any other fixed holder to keep the camera still during exposure.
3. Use a remote or a timer to initiate the picture.  You cannot be still enough to use a finger.
4. Set your camera for the type of light you are taking the picture in.  Generally cameras are set to "warm up" the picture because it looks better for photos of faces. Setting the correct light source can make a big difference on getting the colors right.

Chilly

Sorry about being gone so long, no restoration yet, Camera is a C5000 Olympus, I used super macro mode freehand.


Kurt if you can still send photos it would be great.