A what?

[bandit571]

1st Trophy of the new Garage Sale Season. today...
[attachment=47222]
Cost me a whopping $5....
[attachment=47223]
Appears to be a Millers Falls No.7312....from around 1935...before they went with the "economy" style chuck..
[attachment=47224]
As this one still has the Lion chuck....that was "opened up"...
[attachment=47225]
about 1935 to allow for larger bits...the Top Head was also changed...
[attachment=47226]
to the ball bearing head.  

Have this thing soaking at the moment...and they called it a Wimble? 

Hmmm...

[Tom Wiarda]

I had one of those once with a Spofford chuck. I could never get the hang of drilling a straight hole with it.

[MarkSingleton]

Never saw a brace that was offset like that. Had no idea such a thing existed, and
have no idea how in the world it would be any aid in drilling vs a more conventional
design, ie all in line.

[theoldfart]

Nice wimble(sp?) Bandit. That price is highway robbery too!

[toolmiser]

I had an auger for ice fishing that had the offset handles like that. I never like it.

[EatenByLimestone]

Its supposed to allow more torque. My ice auger is that way too.

[AHill]

Great find.

In a more conventional hand brace, you apply downward pressure to the pad on the head, and torque to the sweep handle. Since this one is offset, it's tricky, but you have to rotate both the head and sweep handle to get the best performance. Otherwise, you're fighting with the sweep handle to keep the brace from tipping over.

[stav]

Looks like a good find.  I'd need to see it in action though. I can't picture how I'd keep it straight.

[bandit571]

Sometimes known as a (Rail Road) Car Builder's Brace.....lots of torque to drive self-feeding bits through car beams.....where you can't just stand behind the brace to power it along....where BOTH hands are doing the "Sweepage" motion.

[bandit571]

Sometimes a Chain drill attachment was added.....chain pulled the bit into the post.  all you had to do was keep turning the brace..