Things to look for in a good brace drill and where to find one.A good brace will have a universal chuck (will accept any bit with a
square tang), a ratchet mechanize, and a ball-bearing head. Brace
drills come in a range of sizes. The distance that the handle is offset
from the frame is called the swing. The diameter that the handle
travels around (twice the swing) is called the sweep. Generally, the
sweep of different size brace drills is in increments of two inches.
Most of the ones you’ll find are between 10” to 14”. The smaller sizes
will fit smaller hands much better.
There are many places to find a brace drill but the best places will be
antique stores and online auctions. You can find new ones, but
they’llprobablycostmoreandbeoffarlessquality. Bepicky,there’s
a lot of junk out there and there’s not much difference in price
between the old rusted ones and the ones in good shape. Twenty
dollars should get you a nice brace drill.
vise that’s about chest high. By doing this you can lean your whole body
against the top handle as you turn the handle. Either way will work fine.HeadBow
This distance is called the swing
TwicethisdistanceiscalledthesweepHandleRatchetJawsFig. 1 Brace drill
Used by permission from the Florida Center for Instructional Technology