attachments to convert electric drills into orbital sanders

Yes I've got exactly one of those; but I haven't used it for ages. These days self-powered orbital sanders are so cheap (can be got for under 10 GBP) it's simply not worth the hassle of changing attachments. Also, my B&D had a maximum speed of 2400 rpm; contrast that with even a cheap sander running at 10,000 rpm and the benefits are obvious.

I remember my Mum (no, not Dad!) buying our family's first electric drill (about 1970 in the pre-mass-market-DIY era) - a bog-standard B&D job which cost 30 GBP, a very substantial amount of money then. There were loads of attachments available, because it was simply prohibitive to own more than one of these machines.

Think I've still got B&D circular saw, jigsaw, horizontal and vertical drill-stand attachments as well somewhere!

David

Cue:

"Have you seen the new attachment on my drill? I must have the cat put down because he's ill"

for those that remember the Bonzos ;-)

-- John Stumbles

-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+

-+ Load dropped, paperwork completed: job done.

IISTR that my mum also bought a B&D kit which came in a large plastic case the size of a small suitcase. It had a two speed (gearbox) hammer drill and various attachments bundled with it. Sander (orbital and rotary), jigsaw, and circular saw I think. The sander used to vibrate all the feeling out of your hands after 10 mins use! The circular saw seemed OK at the time (although would probably feel really nasty in comparison to a real one today!). The jigsaw was the wierdest thing - it ended up very long and ungainly and quite odd to use. I think the drill is still going strong some 20 years later - but the rest of the bits have been forgotton!

My Dad had one of those. Sort of turquoise-blue colour as I recall.

Actually quite servicable as a DIY toolkit. The thing I remember is that that old B&Q drills were metal cased. I remember making a horizontal bench jig for that drill in metalwork at school.

PoP

That would be the jobbie! - metal gearbox at the front with the then "standard" attachment lugs (before the standardised collar idea came about) - turquoise-blue nylon case at the back end.

As you say - at the time it all seemed rather good. I used to think it's circular saw attachment was quite good - right up until the time I bought a decent 7" dedicated circular saw!

One problem was the non tipped blades went blunt very quickly and were expensive. Had smoke pouring out of my drill on a few ocassions trying to finish a job with a blunt one.