Millers Falls No 188A

[blackhat]

very nice little push drill.   Anyone know of a source for the cruciform shank points?

[Admiral]

Hen's teeth, I gave up years ago.

[bandit571]

I had to keep shaking handles, until I found one with the bits still in the handle.....Ends are more like a  + sign.

Now that I have 2 North Brothers Yankee #41 push drills , and a Millers Falls #100.....I find the 188A to be surplus in my shop....6 bits in the handle.....might just put it on that auction site....

[Bill_Houghton]

Hard to find - they're out there, but not easily found.

sidetracking: last weekend, I picked up a Goodell-Pratt push drill, which uses the same pattern of point/drill bit.  The bit storage in the handle contained an incomplete set of eggbeater drill points, which have round shanks.  How the previous user ever made that work, I don't know.

[blackhat]

I suspected it was going to be futile

[Greg Jones]

The Goodell Pratt/Millers Falls + push drill screw chuck is, IMO, the best there was. It locks up very tight, no play at all once the bit is chucked. The early Yankee style chuck was not bad either as it too was a screw chuck, but then Yankee switched to a spring action chuck (similar to how all the electric drill/driver chucks work today). These chucks allow for a quick bit change, but the drills that I have seen with a lot of finish wear also were very sloppy in the chuck.

I realize these are not precision drilling tools, but my favorite push drill is an early (1915 patent date) Goodell Pratt 185. It has obviously seen plenty of use, but still locks up nice with no play. Eventually the Yankee style bit became the standard, and Millers Falls began offering their drills with the Yankee-style bits and they added an 'A' to the model name to distinguish them from the older models (wasn't the case with the 188A)

   
You can still find bits on eBay, although they can be pricy. Here is a seller (link) that has multiple sizes for sale. Might be worthwhile to contact him to see if you can get a discount for buying more than one, as his price does include shipping. One cheap way to find these bits is to look on eBay for the Craftsman drills made by Millers Falls. The can sell pretty cheap and often are complete with a full set of bits.

Any particular size bit(s) you are looking for, or do you need the full set?