Thread: Repairing a Yankee No.1545 Eggbeater

An internet search reveals that a number of people have disassembled their Yankee drills, but I could find none who have tackled the 5-position selector. Looks like I’m on my own (gulp ).

So I’ve been brave (or foolish ) and taken apart my No.545.

I disassembled the No.545 by first removing the spindle. Unlike the No.1530, the spindle is held captive by a small slotted grubscrew directly opposite the side handle.

Y545spindle screw.jpg

Undo the screw a few turns and the spindle can be slid out. This allowed the barrel ("body portion" in patent description) containing the 5 position selector and mechanism to drop out, along with the two pinion gears. The selector mechanism is fully contained within a nickel-plated brass sleeve, which is held captive by a thin key – which can be seen 180° from the selector slot. I tapped this inwards to below the level of the sleeve. I was then able to persuade the sleeve to slide off, using a ¾” dog hole in my bench to restrain the sleeve while tapping out the brass/bronze core with a wooden drift *.

This revealed:

1. shifting plate;
2. spring plate;
3. 2 No. three-legged copper coloured (bronze?) pawl springs;
4. 4 No. pawls

One of the pawls is twisted about 10°. Two show considerable wear on the raised portion. One of the “E” springs has a missing leg. All are (were) coated in gunk of some sort – possibly dried grease. Six months of soaking in kerosene made no inroads on this gunk, but acetone and careful mechanical scraping removed it.

Mech1ML.jpg The four pawls and the shifting plate are ferrous (magnetic). The other components are brass and (I think) bronze.

The pawls are two different lengths (3 of one, and 1 of the other). This didn’t tie in with the patent drawings.

Mech2ML.jpg The 2nd & 4th pawls have a lot of wear to the raised (actuating) portion. The 3rd pawl is twisted ~10° along it's length.

Last part to disassemble was to remove the thin key (described above). I inserted the tang of a file into the bore of the brass barrel to force the key back out – but it soon became apparent that I could not move the key by force alone, and that attempting to lever it out was likely to damage the barrel. The alternative was to attempt to drive the key deeper into the barrel in the hope it would drop into the bore.

It was a close thing – the key appeared to bottom out in the bore without clearing the slot – but with another tap at the other end it came free and was able to drop out through the bore.

Attachment 351919 The key (centre) goes into the slot in the barrel (right) locking the sleeve in place (not pictured) and engaging the slot in the spindle (left).

* note that the No.550, No.555, No.1550 & No.1555 have a larger diameter mechanism. The No.1530 has a smaller diameter mechanism.

Cheers, Vann.

I can't get this to show in the previous post - so here it is again.

Mech3ML.jpg The key (centre) goes into the slot in the barrel (right) locking the sleeve in place (not pictured) and engaging the slot in the spindle (left).

Cheers, Vann.

The Patent:
George Langford’s site georgesbasement gave a link to George Leopolds patent #894673 which Google had digitised ~2012. Unfortunately their OCR text recognition program had struggled with this and portions of the copy were gibberish. By carefully working through the explanation, the diagrams, and the parts of my mechanism I was able to unravel the pertinent parts of the patent, for example this paragraph...

There are four pawls in the present instance, referringto Figs 1, D, D, D D and one pawl is entirely independent of the others. The pawls D, D engage a ratchet wheel a on the bevel wheel A. and the pawls D D engage a ratchet wheel a on the bevel wheel A. The pawls are forced into gear with these ratchet wheels by the pawl springs F, Fig. 6, each of which has two arms f, f WlllCll rest on the pawls and a central arm f...

...which I have edited to read as follows:

There are four pawls in the present instance, referring to Fig. 1, D, D¹, D², D³, and one pawl is entirely independent of the others. The pawls D, D¹, engage a ratchet wheel a on the bevel wheel A, and the pawls D², D³ engage a ratchet wheel a on the bevel wheel A¹. The pawls are forced into gear with these ratchet wheels by the pawl springs F, Fig. 6, each of which has two arms f , f, which rest on the pawls and a central arm f¹...

Anyway, here is the patent, diagrams first...
YankeeUS894673-1.pngYankeeUS894673-0.png


GEORGE O. LEOPOLD, OF PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA, ASSIGNOR TO NORTH BROS. MFG CO., OF PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA, A CORPORATION OF PENNSYLVANIA.

RATCHET MECHANISM

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented July 28, 1908

To all whom it may concern

Be it known that I, GEORGE O. LEOPOLD, a citizen of the United States , residing in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, have invented certain improvements in Ratchet Mechanism, of which the following is a specification.
My invention relates to certain improvements in ratchet mechanism especially tools, such as drills and screwdrivers, although the ratchet mechanism may be applied to other devices or machines without departing from my invention.
The object of my invention is to so construct a ratchet mechanism that the pawls act independently and the mechanism can be so shifted as to throw any of the pawls into action, or a certain pair of pawls into action.
This object I attain in the following manner, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, in which
Figure 1, is a longitudinal sectional view illustrating my improved ratchet mechanism and showing the shifting plate removed;
Fig. 2, is a plan view of the body portion showing the shifting plate in position:
Fig. 3, is a sectional view on the line 3-3, Fig. 1, with the bevel wheel omitted;
Fig. 4, is a detached perspective view of the shifting plate and its spring;
Fig. 5, is a perspective view of one of the pawls;
Fig. 6, is a perspective view of one of the pawl springs;
Fig. 7, is a side view of the ratchet mechanism drawn to a reduced scale;
Figs. 8 and 9, are views of the body portion with the parts detached; and
Figs. 10, 11, 12, 13 and 14, are diagram views showing the shifting plate in different positions.

A, A¹ are two driving bevel wheels mounted loosely on the spindle B and driven from a common gear A², C is a cylindrical body portion carrying the ratchet mechanism and secured to the spindle B by a pin b, which passes through the body portion and through the spindle so that the spindle must turn with the body portion. The body portion is slotted at each end as at c, Fig. 8, and is grooved at c¹, c², the grooves being longitudinal and connecting with the slots at each end. The body portion is also notched at c³ for the reception of the pivot members d, d, of the pawls D, Fig. 5. Each pawl has a rearwardly extending portion forming at tailpiece d¹ and this tail piece is slightly raised at the end and curved as shown clearly in Fig. 5, so that the slide E can readily actuate it.

There are four pawls in the present instance, referring to Fig. 1, D, D¹, D², D³, and one pawl is entirely independent of the others. The pawls D, D¹, engage a ratchet wheel a on the bevel wheel A, and the pawls D², D³ engage a ratchet wheel a on the bevel wheel A¹. The pawls are forced into gear with these ratchet wheels by the pawl springs F, Fig. 6, each of which has two arms f , f, which rest on the pawls and a central arm f¹, which rests against the plate or the inclosing shell G. The sliding plate is notched at e¹, on one side and at e² and e³ on the opposite side on a line with the tail members d¹ of the pawls, and this slide can be adjusted longitudinally so that the tail members of any one or two of the pawls will be opposite the notches and will be allowed to engage the ratchet wheels; the plate keeping all of the other pawls out of gear. The plate is held in position by a spring I, and at each end of this spring are projections i, i, turned down to engage notches i¹, in each end of the plate E.
Added to the spring is a screw i², which extends through a slot g, in the shell G and the head of this screw is of sufficient size that it can be readily shifted from one position to another, the slot being notched and marked to indicate the different points of adjustment, as clearly shown in Fig. 7. As illustrated in the diagrams, Figs. 10 to 14, both inclusive, the plate E can be adjusted to five different positions so as to produce five different movements of the spindle B.

As indicated by the letters in Fig. 7, the five movements are as follows:
The first is ordinary, that is the parts are shown locked so that there is no ratchet movement and the drive is direct from the driving shaft to the driven spindle;
second is a right continuous movement;
third is a left continuous movement;
fourth is a right hand ratchet;
and fifth is a left hand ratchet.

When the shifting plate E is in the first position, Fig. 10, the two pawls D², D³, are free and the other two pawls are held out of engagement with their ratchet wheel, thus locking the body portion rigidly to the gear A. This is the ordinary position.
Fig. 11, shows the plate shifted to the second position, freeing the pawls D¹ and D², and holding the pawls D and D³ out of engagement. Then the pawls are in position to effect a right continuous feed.
In Fig. 12, the plate E, is shifted to the third position, freeing the pawls D and D², and holding the pawls D¹ and D³ out clear of the ratchet wheels; this will effect a left continuous movement.
Fig. 13, is the fourth position of the plate E, and all the pawls, with the exception of the pawl D³, are held out of engagement, giving the spindle a right hand ratchet movement.
When the plate is in the fifth position, as shown in Fig. 14, all the pawls, with the exception of the pawl D², are held out of engagement, giving the spindle a left hand ratchet movement.

Note: this is not the configuration adopted for production, which was instead:
1^st position – ordinary (as described);
2^nd position – right hand ratchet (as described for 4^th position);
3^rd position – left hand ratchet (as described for 5^th position);
4^th position – right continuous movement (as described for 2^nd position);
5^th position – locked (not described);
There is no position that gives a left hand continuous movement (as described for 3^rd position).

Thus it will be seen by the above construction that l am enabled to shift the pawls to produce different movements of the spindle by simply sliding the plate to one position or another.
While l have shown four pawls, three pawls may be all that is necessary for some types of ratchet mechanism.

I have not reproduced the rest. For one, Leopold makes a number of claims not pertinent to understanding the operation of his mechanism, but also because the end of the patent OCR is not readily decipherable.

So this is as far as I have got. Next task is to take apart the second mechanism and gather together the best set of parts.

Cheers, Vann.

Excellent work Vann.
Here's the link to the PDF of the patent for completeness.
http://patentimages.storage.googleap...s/US894673.pdf
Brass is used as spring material.
http://www.springworksutah.com/index...ass-ca260.html
Some CA260 shim stock should work as a replacement.
http://www.amazon.com/Unpolished-Fin.../dp/B00CNLVK3U
Have you measured how thick your E springs are?

I’ve been working constantly on these drills over the last 3¾ years, since I last posted on this thread (yeah, right – I hadn’t touched the parts until about two weeks ago ). There I was on a hand tool kick, when in July 2015 someone offered me a Wadkin PK dimension saw (the holy grail of Wadkin saws). I’ve been distracted ever since. However, code4pay’s thread “Lets see your eggbeater drills” got me thinking about this old “Yankee” refurb project and so I dragged the two drills out of storage.

Frames: I picked a frame at random and cleaned off the old oil (more like tar), stripped it and painted it.

Yank61.jpg Yank60.jpg

Main Handles: I cleaned the threads on the main handle (the one that wasn’t split). I’d already cleaned up the wood before it went into storage.

Yank66.jpg

Crank Arms: The crank arms were much of a muchness. Both have the shaft for the wooden crank handle bent slightly inwards. The nickel/chrome finish on both is in poor shape, but I had a very bad experience getting some plane lever-caps rechromed – so I’m not going down that road again. I cleaned up the one with the best chrome. I didn’t attempt to disassemble the selector for high/low gear, but oiled the mechanism and made sure it operated smoothly.

Yank70.jpg Yank71.jpg

Crank Gears: I cleaned up the good outer crank wheel (ex #545) and, after masking a pluging machined surfaces, painted the appropriate area each side. Similarly on of the inner crank gears (again selected at random) was degreased, cleaned and wire brushed (the inner, low speed, crank gear has no painted areas).

Yank62.jpg Yank63.jpg Outer crank gear.

Yank64.jpg Yank65.jpg Inner crank gear.

The unused parts will go into my spares bucket - with the exception of the outer crank gear, which is headed for the scrap bin.

Cheers, Vann.

With the recent resumption of progress I have re-assembled some parts.

Yank72.jpg Yank73.jpg

But in the process I took the following photos.

Here you can see the inner crank gear - with 4 pin holes; and the outer crank gear - with 5 pin holes.

Yank69.jpg

On the crank arm is a little speed selector lever - which in one position extends the inner locator pin to engage the inner crank gear (low speed). In the other position the inner locator pin is retracted and the outer locator pin is extended to engage the outer crank gear (high speed).

Yank67.jpg

Yank68.jpg

Cheers, Vann.

That is awesome Vann. I love clever design no matter what it is in.
Someone, many years ago, spent a lot of time refining these mechanisms.

Pinion Gears: With the gear teeth I clean out each tooth “valley” with a pointed wooden stick. I then wire brushed all machined surfaces with a powered brass wire wheel. All oil holes were cleaned out.

Yank74.jpg Yank75.jpg Notice using a brass wire brush leaves a golden hue on the parts.

The two top pinions are from the #545 (2-jaw cuck model). The LH one has 3 broken teeth, so only the RH pinion will make it to the spares box. Yankee drills have a reputation for fragile gear castings (my big #1555 also has broken teeth on a pinion).

Shafts: Both shafts were degreased and cleaned.

Yank76.jpg LH shaft from the 2-jaw #545. RH shaft from the 3-jaw #1545.

The shaft passes through the frame, then through the pinions and ratchet selector (see pinion photos) and back into the frame next to the handle.

On the leading end of the shaft, behind the chuck, is this little knurled housing consisting of a bush (loose), a cap (captivated), and a locking ring. Inside are 14 little ball bearings, each ⅛” diameter.

Yank77.jpg

The #545 had only 13 balls present - in not very good condition. The #1545 had all 14 balls present but all are in poor condition. I'll have to try to source new ball bearings.

Chucks: I want this as a working drill, and as such the 2-jaw chuck on the #545 is of little interest to me. The 3-jaw chuck on the #1545 hadn’t seen a drop of oil for many a year. The internals are rusty and I’ll need to polish and oil everything inside the chuck.

Yank78.jpg

Yank79.jpg

Cheers, Vann.