What are the different types of hand drills and braces?
What are the different types of hand drills and braces? |
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Whilst most hand drills and braces follow the same basic design, there are a few that look a little different. | |||
Heavy duty fully enclosed hand drills |
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These hand drills have the drive wheel, pinion and frame fully enclosed in a metal case. The case prevents dirt from entering and clogging the pinion and drive wheel. Heavy duty hand drills are made using the same materials as other hand drills. | |||
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Heavy duty fully enclosed hand drills usually come with a breast plate attached, so the user is able to apply more pressure on the drill bit making them better suited for drilling hard materials such as metal. | |||
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This type of hand drill will often have two speeds, which can be switched between by unscrewing the handle from one side of the drill and attaching it to the other. By doing this, the handle turns a different sized drive wheel inside the casing, switching between high speed low torque and low speed high torque. | |||
Pistol grip hand drills |
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Pistol grip hand drills do not have a straight handle like other hand drills. Instead, the handle is shaped to be gripped like you would a pistol or electric drill. | |||
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Modern pistol grip hand drills have a plastic handle which encases the drive wheel, pinion and frame of the drill in a similar way to a heavy duty fully enclosed hand drill. | |||
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The pistol grip design is said to give more control when performing small, intricate drilling, whilst the enclosing keeps dirt out of the workings inside. This makes them more suitable to smaller, more delicate drilling jobs. | |||
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The pistol grip and enclosed casing is made in two parts that screw together. Some feature a removable compartment between the two halves that can be used to store spare dill bits. | |||
Corner braces |
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A corner brace is designed for drilling or driving screws in the corners of a work area, where the confined space would prevent you from being able to make a full turn of the sweep handle on a standard brace.
Corner braces have been superseded by corner power drills which can fit into tighter, smaller corners. As a result, there is not enough demand for corner braces, so they are no longer manufactured. |
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Unlike other braces that provide a direct drive from the user to the bit in the chuck, corner braces have two gears to redirect the turning motion of the sweep handle through a 45° angle to the chuck.
They also have an additional part to their frame that forms a 90 degree angle that the sweep handle fits between. This additional part of the frame has a fixed corner side handle that is used to steady and apply pressure to the bit in the chuck, much in the same way as the head on a normal brace. |
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Ice auger and brace |
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The ice auger and brace consists of a very large steel auger bit designed to cut into ice and a brace attachment.
The brace does not have a chuck or ratchet and is attached to the auger bit with a hand knob that can be set in different positions to alter the height of the auger and brace. |
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They are designed to bore holes through frozen lake ice for fishing.
Powered ice augers are now available, but weigh considerably more and do not have an endless power supply, so hand ice augers and braces are still used by many people. |
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