The era under discussion is prior to the advent of electronic speed controls when the 2 speeds available on the likes of a mechanically geared B&D 720 were 2400, and 900 rpm
Otherwise why would Turnip have posted the following (if only somewhat tongue in cheek)
Don't forget that Turnip was probably beavering away with one of his bionic wrists, while listening to news of the "Sellafield Fire" being broadcast on the BBC News.
Or are you suggesting that it's Turnip himself, who's been the "snowflake", all along ?
Lol. You're an amusing idiot. You've never even tried to do it, yet you ima gine you know more than those of us that have done it. You think screwdrivi ng bits didn't exist when they did. Yankee screwdriver bits came to England in large numbers in the 40s. I used cheap wood handled screwdrivers at fir st, just take the handle off, then moved over to hex bits. You think you kn ow where we're coming from despite having never bothered to spend the time on this newsgroup to find out. You're too stupid to know you're stupid.
Oh, and back then you could buy way more hazardous things in shops. Few peo ple cared. Conc acids, explosives, lawn darts, bowl heaters, no end of chem icals, a very long list of stuff.
There are 3 types of moron that visit this group. The first hasn't got a cl ue and knows it, and can learn some. The 2nd type is like Rod & Dr Evil, th ink they know it all but are lost some place. Then there are the ones like you. You're too stupid to figure out even quite basic things, and absolutel y convinced that everyone else must be every bit as stupid as you are. No d emonstration ever penetrates that layer of idiocy and wakes you up. I'm gra teful not to share your mindset.
Why not just respond to the post addressed directly to you?
You know the one, the post which points out by way of direct quotes how you've contradicted yourself, not just once but at least twice in this thread, in your replies to different people. I've reposted it at the bottom in case you missed it
Rather than posts such as this one, which was posted in response to Turnip.
You see, unlike you Turnip claimed to have only a vague idea of what the term "Yankee" actually referred to. And so it's unlikely he would have independently known of yankee screwdriver bits..
Being abusive, or jumping out of your pram and posting reams of generalised drivel about the "old days" and how you all had every opportunity to kill yourselves doesn' t actually cut the mustard you see. Its pretty obvious that you're just getting yourself all worked up unnecessarily, as you know you've been found out
I found for large difficult screws, the B&D was actually usable. (the speed is not that much more than my 18V Makita flat out in low gear)
I put it in low gear and took one of the bits from my impact driver (not the modern equivalent - but the thing you clomp with a hammer).
It had limitations (i.e. no reverse or variable speed for starters), but would stick a screw in.
You see that one, second from the left on the top:
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That's the actual bit I used in my 2 speed B&D drill when sticking some
3" screws into masonry for some hefty speaker brackets in the late 80s.
Not a technique I would use on delicate stuff, but on large screws it was quite viable. You use much the same control as you do with a modern impact driver - i.e. let go of the trigger when the screw in in far enough. (or tighten the last bit by hand if you don't want to risk over doing it)
What does "over doing it" consist of in this context ?
I would have suggested it meant either a) or b) below.
That's for you to decide.
What's being debated here are the merits of using a hand drill and screwdriver, against a yankee pump action screwdriver.
The point being made was that using two tools, the mains drill and a hand screwdriver to drive the screw home satisfactorily was far slower than using a Yankee screwdriver on its own.
Again the main objection being made on here against the Yankee was the bit slipping out of the slot in the screw, where the chuck on a Yankee with its rotating exterior sleeve could be held in the hand. Whreas what you seem to be suggesting here, is that its easier to prevent the bit slipping out of the slot with a blade rotating at
900 r.p.m. where its impossible to hold the chuck.
Driving the screw and setting it too deep, or causing the bit to cam out and risk marking the surface. Unlikely to be A on a non hardened wood screw as was common at the time. B was certainly a possibly though.
I was not joining that debate, only highlighting that your claims that screw driver bits which could be used in a chuck were not available when plainly they were (for that matter, the yankee bits can be used if you place the flutes deep in the chuck so they miss the jaws), and also, your assertion that screwdriving with a 2 speed B&D was not viable, which I also know is incorrect since I have done it.
It was not easy to keep the bit in the screw. Hence why I would only suggest it for large fasteners with a very good positive engagement. Having said that I found the technique mostly successful even with slotted screws which lack any self centring facility.
I still remember ripping 8x4s with a jigsaw, because I could not afford a circular saw as well when I bought my first house (mid 70's). I still regularly use the B&D angle grinder from the same era, what a beast! It's had a couple of sets of brushes, that's all.
Not to TNP to whom that response was directed. Who in a previous post claimed to be unfamiliar with the application of the term "Yankee".
I never suggested that NT didn't have access to Yankee bits
- he actually owned yankee screwdrivers - only that his insistance that
Driving such bits using a power drill was superior to using a Yankee pump action screwdriver for the same job. Thereby implying that all the thousands of people who'd been satisfactorily using Yankee Screwdrivers for that very function for years, were somehow stupid or deficient.
Whereas the fault more likely lay in NTs inability to gain proficiency in using a Yankee screwdriver.
It really is that simple.
It can't compare with using a Yankee for the same job for the reasons given. That's the point. The need for potentially two tool operations. A drill and a possibly a hand screwdriver to finish off. An option I've recognised right from the off. I'm not talking one or two screws here, but between say one or two hundred screws in boarding out a loft; as I quoted in my first post on this topic.
Stanley did actually supply Pozidriv bits when they first became available in the mid 80's. The Pozidriv name and maybe patent number was engraved on the blades. But before that they supplied Phillips pattern cross head bits whose patent ran out in 1966 Pozidriv's own patent ran out around 2005, and while nobody could use the registered trade name of Pozidriv they could produce identical bits and screwheads which some may have sold as Pozidrive, or just "Pozi" without apparently getting sued for "passing off", while others made up fancy names such as Superdrive or whatever.
There are original Stanley Pozidriv bits still available on eBay.
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What many people might not realise is that once the screw has been pumped home using the pumping action, the handle can then be twisted in the conventional way as with an ordinary screwdriver, to impart the final twist; whatever the position on the ratchet spiral at the time. This is usually preferable to trying to force the screw home by pushing on the end of the handle as hard as possible and forcing it down the ratchet.
Again if you want to remove a screw for some reason, you can reverse the ratchet, but first use the tool like a conventional screwdriver by giving the handle a quick anti-clockwise twist to loosen the screw, before using the pump action to complete the task.
This is somewhat confusing as the middle position on the slot on the handle locks the spiral, turning the tool into a conventional screwdriver. Whereas in normal use as a pump action ratchet screwdriver as described above, there's no need for this setting at all.
My uncle used a really long Yankee, from memory around 2ft long which from your link , made it a 130. Unfortunately somebody else got all his tools and so I had to buy my own. I ended up with a box of big spanners instead, all of which I still have knocking around and still haven't found a use for most of them.
What was being suggested by both NT and Turnip, the latter of whom I don't think was being entitely serious, was that it was easier to mount a screwdriver bit in a conventional two speed drill and use that to drive in screws, than it was to use a Yankee pump action screwdriver for the same job.
This whole sub-thread arose as a result of NT's disparagement of Yankee pump action screwdrivers, their capabilities and all the people who used them.
( Nowadays nobody would seriously suggest that they could compete with drill drivers, or cordless drills in terms of producing effortless and speedy results. But then there are maybe other criteria governing tool selection)
NT and Turnips "old codger" defence is rather amusing however. In that the people they're seeking to disparage are an older generation, not a younger generation, to their own.
Not something I ever bothered with - but they were in common use in TV studios by scenery construction crews. Who wouldn't be interested in a tool merely to look cool.
Perhaps on a desert island?
Don't even bother reading most of Turnip's witterings.
Interesting that you feel that you must introduce an ageist dimension
Yankee screwdrivers - or as I knew them, spiral ratchet screwdrivers, were a fad. We all bought one, and they didn't really work, especially with flat blade screws.
I never said a mains drill was easier, I merely disputed the claim that it was impossible.
The only reference I made to age was to point out that the postwar generation tried things out, and took risks and used what they had to hand.
Todays generation have been brainwashed into thinking they are on the one hand much smarter than they are, and on the other the the world ex of the nanny state is so dangerous they cant cope with it.
This combined feminisation and pathetic intellectual arrigance is of course your characteristic feature.
I said it's quicker. That should be pretty obvious.
I have disparaged neither. I said I didn't have much time for spiral screwdrivers. I have 2 very different patterns of them and like neither.
The fool can't even get who said what right. Yet he's convinced he's right!
For a long time humans have looked to be constructive. Snowflakes are afraid of imagined monsters, and insist they're real. They are impractical and generally incapable people with an attitude that mostly guarantees failure.
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