Yankee spiral push screwdriver

[eganders]

I am looking for a very good quality, smooth action "Yankee" style spiral push screwdriver. I want it to be about 9 to 11 inches long fully extended and able to store the bits in the handle. I have seen several examples, but without better descriptions and trying them out personally, I can't decide. Does anyone have thoughts on what I found below or have other sources?

This will be a present for my son who at 31 is reliving his childhood and recalls me using one for years.

Garrett Wade has two

69P01.01 that is all metal and stores bits in the handle, but I don't see the length and I don't know how smooth the action is. 19S17.01 is the "original" Yankee, is the right length, but I don't think you can store bits in the handle.

Lee Valley

28K02.01 has bit storage in the handle and is 9 7/16 inch long extended. This looks perfect, but I don't know how smooth the action is and the end cap is plastic. My old ratcheting screwdriver had a metal cap that I could use to pound a plastic fastener into the wall which was very convenient.

[willshak]

on 11/10/2007 8:58 AM eganders said the following:

Stanley bought the Yankee screwdriver some time ago and Stanley will no longer make them as of October 2007. I have a Stanley and some other unmarked brand, but they are only 9" long and the bit storing handles are all plastic. Are you sure the original Yankee had bit storage in the handle? I remember them as having a solid wood handle.

[Larry Blanchard]

The push drills had bits in the handles. I don't think the screwdrivers did, but I'm sure I haven't seen all models.

I'd suggest that the OP look up a dealer in old tools instead of trying to find a new one. I'm partial to the ones made by Goodell-Pratt, but that's just my opinion.

[Thomas G. Marshall]

willshak said something like:

...[rip]...

Perhaps?

[J. Clarke]

That's a push drill, not a screwdriver. Only turns one direction and no ratchet.

The only one I've ever seen with bit storage in the handle was from Sears

Lee Valley

You might also want to look at the Schroeders that you can get from

and from I understand that they have been in production nearly as long as the Yankee and used to be sold in the US as "Millers Falls".

The Lee Valleys are reasonably priced and between being Japanese and being Lee Valley I suspect that they're pretty good--the Japanese are pretty picky about what they export and Lee Valley is pretty picky about what they sell, so between the two it's likely to be decent, while Stanley QC has been going downhill for years.

FWIW, McFeely also has one--30 bucks and takes 1/4 inch bits, but they don't say where it's imported from. Still, McFeely also tends to have good stuff.

[Jim Stuyck]

I'm looking at my Stanley Yankee 133H "MADE IN U.S.A" as I write this note. It's about 9 1/2" long, has a gray wooden handle with a metal screwed top (about 1/2" diameter) that retains the spring. There's a red-painted band below the handle, maybe 1/2" long.

There is no provision to store bits in the handle.

This is a hand-me-down that may date to the 1930's. I RARELY use it, finding portable electrics much more useful.

Jim Stuyck

[Lowell Holmes]

snip> There is no provision to store bits in the handle.

I use mine.

[Ron Magen]

John,

I've had BOTH the 'Push Driver' and the 'Push Drill' for years. {I remember using the 'drill' when we would visit some cousins. I was maybe 6 or 7 at the time. Put me in the basement with some 'real tools', some chunks of scrap wood - and don't forget me when you leave !!}

Anyhow, rather then get the 'power drill' {corded OR battery}, and the bits for those 'little' jobs - I just grab the 'Yankee' drill {bits in the red-topped handle}. It's in a 'peg-board' holder above the bench, with the bigger 'Yankee' driver next to it.

While I can't comment on the 'Quality' of the offerings from Garrett Wade, Lee Valley, and the like . . . their Pricing is usually right UP THERE, too. You are correct about McFeeley's now having an 'up-dated' version. I get almost all my screws from them {Square Drive Stainless Steel, Marine Bronze, 'No-Co-Rode' }and other 'goodies'. A couple of them link the 'old' Yankee to today's materials. A 'Square Drive' bit with the 'Yankee' shaft, and a 'bit holder' with the 'shaft'.

IF you are a 'Collector', getting an 'original' is one thing. If you are a 'User' . . . I'd go with the 'modern' one.

Regards, Ron Magen Backyard Boatshop

{snip},> Lee Valley {snip},> Schroeders {snip}

don't say where it's imported from. Still, McFeely also tends to have good stuff.

[Upscale]

Well, I bought the 9-7/16" one and it resides in my tool pouch. It works just as well as my father's Yankee screwdriver that we had forty years ago although this one is somewhat shorter. I use it mostly for removing and redriving machine screws.

[George]

I have the big Yankee, now with a set of square drives and such from Lee Valley, and bought my son their Japanese model equivalent. Works well in either direction or locked. Handle is plastic, but the Yankee is wood, so I use a hammer as a hammer.

The bits live in an old pill container.

[J T]

Sat, Nov 10, 2007, 5:58am (EST-3) [e-mail] (eganders) doth sayeth: I am looking for a very good quality, smooth action "Yankee" style spiral push screwdriver.

There's originals out there, at reasonable prices. Got mine awhile back, not 100% sure where, it' was made some time after the turn of the century, after 1900 that is. Don't recall the brand. My slide nail puller was made around 1910, if I recall right. Don't recall that brand either. Or you could buy new ones. I like like having originals, and using them. I paid something around $30, or less, for both, shipping included. I am a tool collector only in the sense that I use the tools I collect. Hmm, there's a gun show coming up, last one I went to, someone had two old planes for sale. By old, I mean like about 1940s old, in excellent condition, for $25 each. Maybe he'll come back, I could use a plane or two.

JOAT Viet Nam. Divorce. Cancer. Been there, done that, got over it. Now where the Hell are my T-shirts?

- JOAT