They don't make them like they used to.

[glatt]

I put the thing back together without a cord just to take a look at it. Pretend it works and see what it would be like to use it. Black & Decker is crap in 2016, but had a reputation for making good tools back in the day.

First off, the grip is horrible if you are used to a modern drill. I can get one finger on the trigger, one finger on the handle grip, the third finger is halfway off the grip, and my pinky is just tucked underneath not really doing anything.


There’s a little pin on the bottom that you can push in to lock the trigger in place. This picture really shows how you feel like you are going to drop this drill at any time. There’s nothing to hold on to.


It’s got a tiny keyless chuck. I didn’t know that they had keyless chucks back in the olden days. I guess when it’s so small, it would work just fine. No big drill bits can fit in here, so you won’t be fighting much torque.


So let’s look at the plate to see what it has under the hood.
Only 1.3 amps. And it spins kinda fast at 2250 RPM. Patent 2487011 was issued in Nov. 1949. So this was probably built in 1950.

[glatt]

Let’s compare it to my low end Black & Decker drill that I bought about 20 years ago. My 20 year old drill is nothing special. But it’s got 3.0 amps of power compared to this old drill’s 1.3 amps. It runs slower too at 1200 RPM, but that’s faster than you are ever going to need.


And look at how much bigger the grip is on the “new” drill. Did people have tiny hands 65 years ago?


And while I always though my 3/8 inch drill had a small chuck, it looks enormous by comparison.


Thankfully, they don’t make them like they used to.

[glatt]

So if had plugged this in with the bare wires all wrapped together like that and the metal housing charged, would I have gotten a shock before the circuit breaker tripped? I was wearing sneakers on a dry linoleum floor.

[xoxoxoBruce]

I doubt Black & Decker is to blame for the wiring, it's obvious somebody has messed with it. I suspect the chuck has been replaced too, keyless chucks were pretty rare in those days.

I have a B&D industrial drill from way back, probably WW I era. The cord had been replaced with a heavy duty 25 ft cord courtesy of the Philadelphia Navy Yard, where my Ex-father-in-law stole it. It's a big two handed drill but only a 3/8 chuck.
The odd thing is the trigger mechanism, pull and release it's on, pull and release it's off. This rolling block trigger is really disconcerting to us used to modern triggers. I replaced it with a newer trigger but saved the original so it could be restored.