Bits for Millers Falls 2A?

What size/style bits do these things take? I picked one up at a garage sale yesterday and it seems if I open the jaws up more than 1/8", the chuck comes off.

Thanks.

Sounds like you have some rehabilitating to do.

You might find some help here:

http://www.wkfinetools.com/hUS-borTo...Anatomy-01.asp

Most of the time I use standard twist drill bits up to 3/8". Though the bigger bits are a bit hard to use on harder woods.

jtk

Thanks Jim.

It may handle up to 17/64s, I'll have to try one. After having the chuck cone pop off twice, I'm reluctant to open it up much as the jaw bearing falls right out (and once, the jaws). It's a real adventure getting it back on, the bearing has to sit perfectly centered on top of the all three jaws, and it is just barely big enough to span all three.

All the rehabbing I do is strictly functional, I don't really care what they look like. My type 11 jointer is missing the top of the frog, lateral adjuster, and the obligatory broken tote (just enough remaining to hang on to). But once fettled and given a Clifton cap iron, works just fine.

Maybe someday when I have more time, I'll work on dressing up my motley crew.

If it's like the MF drill I have, it sounds like some threads are seized; sounds like the chuck is coming apart first rather than moving up and down the threaded rod like it should? Mine is different than the one Jim linked, however, so I could be way off base.

EDIT: Never mind, reread James post again, I'm misunderstanding the problem and way his drill is made. And now that I think of it. the problem I'm thinking of wouldn't be it, because I've got the thread directions wrong.

It sure does sound like youre taking the chuck apart like joshua mentioned. The jaws open and close by turning the entire chuck on the threaded spindle. In this manner you could remove the chuck entirely and put it back on without disturbing the innards enough to need to re set them.
This way the jaws should be able to retract all the way inside the shell just like a contemporary drill chuck.
I have had mine apart once and it was tough to get it back together. I wound up crushing a spring. The guys that assembled those things all day must have been magicians!

A picture would help. Some of those three pieces chucks for hand drills are suppose to have springs that holds the pieces in place. If yours is suppose to have springs that are missing....I just happen to have one that comes apart easy:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/1689105...ream/lightbox/

The springs in this one can go flying across the room if you take the parts out of the chuck, so it is very easy to loose them, say if someone was trying to clean a drill to sell it. This has been my largest problem buying hand drills from auctions. People break the chucks and sell them anyway either without knowing or caring that the drill want hold anything in the chuck. I have several drills with frozen or broken chucks I did not know about until I got them. I have several more which came with frozen or broken chucks that I have been able to repair or replace.