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Comment by vlehto | Hacker News Reader

>Hand braces have remained in use ever since, although they can be difficult to find today.

As bushcraft enthusiast/scout located in a Nordic country, this would be ideal. During a week long camp you might not be able to charge your drill. And during the winter Li-ion batteries die. I've been searching for one with three jaw chuck for some years now. (So it would be compatible with modern drill bits.) I've found one geared drill which had four jaw chuck, didn't hold any bit. And some very old and rusty ones that require special bits.

Seriously sell me one. I'd be willing to pay 30e for one, and maybe more.

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> By far, my favorite brace is the North Bros. Yankee 2101A brace

> The alligator-style chuck jaws close tightly and quickly on square-shanked auger bits or round-shanked twist bits.

From:

There's a few listed on eBay now:

http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=p2050601.m5...

Thanks for trying.

20$ shipping for 30$ tool, while they are mostly two jaw versions. So it's 50$ for something that might be crap and at very least would require me to hunt for vintage set of drill bits. Despite the fact that I already own two modern sets.

Is there any reason why you couldn't retrofit a modern drill chuck onto a hand drill shaft? If all else fails, you could custom make a shaft which the old drill chuck could hold which you could attach the new chuck to.

Not really good reasons. It's just difficult to find them in Finland. All available shafts and chucks are about 30e individually. You can buy decent looking electric drill with that same 60e, so it sounds like ripoff.

Meanwhile any yanks should enjoy their big internal market. :P

At least over here, Irwin still sells brand new auger bits for two-jaw chucks. I inherited some bits and braces and they're completely compatible.

A picture of the collection I have - includes quite a few eggbeater / chest drills, hand braces, and a bunch of other hand woodworking tools.

http://i.imgur.com/rZIj2zl.jpg

You can buy a three-jaw chuck in many places, such as Grizzly: http://www.grizzly.com/catalog/2016/main/383?p=383

It should be relatively simple to retrofit one of these to an existing brace with a different chuck. If the brace doesn't have a matching taper, a machinist should be able to turn it or put a thread compatible with a chuck on it.

I've purchased many old tools, braces included, from Joshua Clark over at http://hyperkitten.com/tools/ForSale/

He's got it all, planes, saws, etc.. He's a great guy, just let him know what you're looking for.

I bought a great brace and a bit set from Garrett Wade. Not cheap, but really fine tools.

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