This is a Montgomery Wards “Powr Kraft” 1/2” electric drill, 1950s vintage.  It was gifted to me by a friend who bought it new back then.  He’s getting up in years now and it’s a little too much tool for him these days.  He thought I could give it a second life.  Thanks, Walt!

Naturally, the first thing I did was start taking it apart.  Removing this little panel allows for easy reach to connect/disconnect the wire end clips of the windings to/from the brush terminals.

Here, I’ve also removed the handle so I can get at the switch and wiring.  The internal wires seem OK, no cracks in the insulation that I could find.

The brushes have plenty of carbon left, so no need to replace them.  So far so good.

Disassembly was pretty basic stuff — Just a bunch of machine screws.  Unlike all too many modern devices, this was designed to be serviced with tools most anyone would have.  The rotor slides right out and it’s looking nice and clean.  Note the steel cooling fan.  They’re plastic on today’s drills.  If you accidentally stick a screwdriver into the air intake slot while it’s spinning, that plastic fan is borked, and repair will likely cost more than replacement, if it can be fixed at all.

Time for a look at the gear case.  The grease is often all dried out and caked up, but Wards must have used the premium shit — This stuff is practically pristine.  It doesn’t even smell too bad.  I’m keeping the old grease.  There, the gear case is done.  That was easy.

The power cord was long gone, but I had a replacement on hand that was the right size.  I’d bought it for a project last year, but it was too big.  I never did return it, just went back to the store and got the right sized cord.  Being a hardware hoarder paid off this time. 

I was able to re-use that little two-piece plastic retaining clip and spring from the original cord, shown below.  The spring functions as a stress reliever, keeping the cord from flexing too much at the retainer, and it’s designed to fit into the plastic clip.  I was real careful not to break the plastic while taking it apart.  If it had broken, I would have had to rig up a whole new cord securement and stress relieving system, and that would have made me cry.

I don’t have any photos of the clean-up.  It was the usual deal —  Scrubbing with soaps and solvents, wire wheeling on the bench grinder, some light sanding and polishing, etc.  Thirsty work, good thing there’s beer in the shop fridge.

I used some starting fluid and a toothbrush on the windings coil, rotor, and the housing innards for final clean up.  Electric contact spray cleaner would have been ideal, but I didn’t have any.  Hey, starting fluid evaporates fast and it didn’t dissolve the varnish on the windings; it should be fine.  Or, maybe I’ll have a drill that shoots flames out the back.  We’ll see.

Here it is all put back together.  The new cord fits perfectly, and it works on the first try.  How about that?  Almost done..

My clean-up removed most of the red paint on the embossed lettering, so I got the rest of it out, took a can of spray paint, shot some onto a piece of cardboard, and used a little paintbrush to fill the letters in.  When the paint dried, I took the excess off with a medium-grit sanding block. 

I haven’t mentioned the chuck yet, because all I did to it was give it a light cleaning — No need to take it all apart.  This drill has a Jacobs chuck, which was considered a top brand back in the day.  Jacobs is still around, but I don’t really know very much about them or their current products.

Pictured below is the completed Wards 1/2” drill, along with my generic 1/2” drill that I bought some 20 years ago. 

The Wards is a goddamn beast, easily twice the size and weight of the modern drill, generating stump-pulling torque.  Which is why that length of pipe is attached opposite the grip handle — For larger holes, you’ll need both hands (and arms) to keep it from getting away from you and knocking out a couple of teeth.  It has two speeds:  On and off.  Oh, and there’s no reverse, so freeing up a jammed drill bit would be a pain in the ass.  In other words, it does one thing and one thing only — full power drilling at 550 RPM.

The modern drill, while smaller and less powerful, has a variable speed feature and a forward/reverse switch.  Those are pretty useful.  It does have a plastic cooling fan, but I haven’t stuck a screwdriver into it yet.  I’ll still use the newer one most of the time, but it just doesn’t have the same coolness/retro factor as this old drill does.

Here’s another look at the finished project, beside an earlier, cordless version.

Finally, I don’t have many WIP photos, but I had to replace our side door this week.  Part of the floor under the threshold had rotted out and mice were entering the house through the opening.  It’s taken me a couple years to figure out how the varmints were getting in, and I wanted to get this fixed before the weather gets cold and they start seeking winter shelter.

The door frame wood was also all spongy down at the base for a good 8” up — It all had to come out.  Sigh.  It would have been nice to save the door and frame.  I patched the floor with some 3/4” plywood that I had in the shop and went to the building center the next day for a new pre-hung door.  Holy shit, $600 for a no-frills fiberglass door assembly with a window!  The old door came out easy — I’m skilled at demolition.  Getting the new one in, not so easy.  These things are heavy and it was a hot day.  There were fitment/alignment issues — Lots of trial & error..  Next time I think I’ll hire a contractor.

I’ve got it functional and secure for tonight.  There’s a little more adjusting to do, but for today, I’m done!