Confused about brace and bits.
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17 November 2014 at 8:53 am #121035
Hi guys,
I’ve been slowly putting together enough tools to get myself started. I’m more than a little confused when it comes to hand braces and bits however.
I’ve read around on the Internet and it seems there are 2 jaw and 3 jaw braces and square shank and hex shank auger bits for boring holes.
I’m in Sydney Australia and Carbatec down here sell both a 2 jaw and a 3 jaw brace as well as adapters but the sales guy only ended up confusing me as to which I need.
I also have the option of going via tool exchange and picking up a second hand brace and a set of Old Irwin or Jennings bits.
Am I better of getting a new brace that takes modern hex shank bits or should I go old school and get an old brace with the old style bits?
thanks in advance.
AndrewAndrew, I have had a similar dilemma recently. I bought an old Stanley a few months back and can’t find any auger bits to fit it. I was going to buy a new one, but an online shop I order from helped me out, as they now stock ‘Clico Jennings Pattern Auger Bits’ which fit these old braces perfectly. They’re not cheap though. So you have four options as I see it: 1) buy a new brace, 2) seek out some old bits from ebay and old tools shops for your current brace, 3) buy some brand new, old-style bits for a 2 jaw brace, 4) buy an inexpensive adapter that ‘converts’ your old brace to take the hex-style bits. (again from ebay; where-else?)
I haven’t tried the Clico bits yet, but I expect they will be very good to use. Hope that helps.
17 November 2014 at 12:16 pm #121047Yes I have a power drill. Thanks for the replies so far. It’d be good if Paul did a blog on braces and bits and which bits we need etc to accompany the sharpening video on auger bits
17 November 2014 at 4:51 pm #121053I have old vintage “Stanley’s and North Brothers with both Jennings and Irwin bits and wouldn’t trade them for anything. I have several in size’s from 6″. 8″ 10″ ( for general use ) and 12”. Lee Valley does sell an adaptor which I have not tried yet. Also bit’s are easy to sharpen, watch Paul’s video.
Steve
17 November 2014 at 5:31 pm #121054Andrew, a few months ago I bought an old brace and a set of bits from different dealers on Etsy.com, a website for arts and crafts that also sells a lot of vintage and antique stuff. My brace is a “Miller’s Falls” and the bits are a complete set (1/4″ to 1″) from Jennings in their original three-tiered box. These items needed a bit of clean-up – I used a wire wheel in a drill – and they work nicely. And they were fairly reasonably prices, something like US$20 for the brace and US$25 for the bits.
I’m not an expert on the 2 jaw or 3 jaw situation, but I’ll give my guess here. The older chucks are two jaw chucks and were made to hold the bits that have square tapered shanks. They worked just fine. My guess is that the three jaw chucks came along later, when other chuck technologies (think power drills or drill presses or metal lathes) went to three jaws. Probably a hexagonal shank would work better in a three jaw chuck.
Good luck on your choice.
17 November 2014 at 6:30 pm #121058I spent a lot of time looking for vintage bits on Ebay etc. Everything i found was either junk or very expensive, especially once shipping to Canada was included.
I ended up buying a set of new bits made by Irwin in Brazil of all places. The bits all needed work (sharpening and removing burrs) before they were usable, but they work ok now. I’m still looking for vintage bits when I go to farm auctions and have acquired several bits, mostly in the boxes of junk that end up selling for a dollar or two. It will take awhile to fill out a full set this way.
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