The care and feeding of Yankees

[British Red]

No, not the colonials , the screwdrivers.

This is slightly off topic - but a lot of us do things like putting up bird bixes, fencing and other outdoor build and maintenance tasks....and that battery driver is useless when the battery dies (even the five I have for mine ). Increasingly now I am looking for "manual" tools to do jobs. So with that in mind.....

For the younger amongst us, Stanley tools made a range of ratchet screwdrivers that look like this


Yankee 131B Screwdriver by British Red, on Flickr

Twist the knurled knob at the end and the screwdriver doubles in length as a helix threaded section shoots out on a spring


Yankee 131B Extended by British Red, on Flickr

By pumping the screwdriver, the "bit" spins and screws can, with a little practice, be driven home fast and accurately

The bits came in a limited number of sizes and are interchangeable - and easily lost!


Yankee Screwdriver bits by British Red, on Flickr

At one time no tradesman or competent DIYer would have been without one of these. Of course nowadays the cordless drill / driver has largely replaced them. New (old stock) models still sell for high prices (£35 plus) to collectors, but worn models like this one can be had for pennies at a car boot sale or auction site.

The problems you will likely encounter are there will be only one (or even no) bits and when you turn the knurled knob the spring loaded part doesn't snap violently out, but slowly moves out half way. These are seen as sign of a worn out spring and useless tool - thats good - its a bargaining point

I have never found one of these actually worn out. But the spring loaded hekix thread goes all gray and gummy with accumulated grease and muck.


It takes about 30 seconds to fix this just spray with engine degreaser and pump a few times!


Degreaser by British Red, on Flickr

Now to fix the lack of bits. Some bright spark has invented a 1/4" hex bit adapter for Yankee screwdrivers


1/4" Hex Adapter by British Red, on Flickr

Push this in place and suddenly your Yankee can have a whole range of bits!


1/4" Hex Bits by British Red, on Flickr

As well as phillips, posidrive and flat you can even have torx and hex bits


1/4" Torq bit by British Red, on Flickr

...or even sockets


Socket Bit by British Red, on Flickr

There we have it...an old tool, re-purposed, cleaned up, brought back to life and perfect for those "no power" situations - and no battery packs to wear out.

If you fancy doing this, I suggest gettine the 131A or 131B screwdrivers (large). There are smaller ones (135) - but they need a different adapter

Red

 

[Shewie]

My dad has one of the old archimedes Yankees, one day it will be mine

The bits are stored in the handle under a screw cap but most are missing I think, where did you find the hex adapter?

 

[crosslandkelly]

Dont forget once the helical thread has been cleaned of old grease, to reapply a thin coat of graphite grease.

 

[British Red]

You can get them on E-bay Shewie - £10 to £12 - but it gives a great old tool a new lease of life. I picked up the 131B shown for a fiver....needed a squirt of degreaser amd I may re-paint the handle (although that doesn't affect use) and its good as new. For me though the adapter gives it a complete new lease of life!

 

[British Red]

Dont forget once the helical thread has been cleaned of old grease, to reapply a thin coat of graphite grease.

Good point, well presented - I use spray graphite rather than grease these days...same principle though

 

[crosslandkelly]

Good point, well presented - I use spray graphite rather than grease these days...same principle though

No spray graphite when I was using mine all the time. Used to use a carabiner to hang it off my belt, a great tool.

 

[Zingmo]

These always remind me of "Harry Tuttle - freelance heating engineer"

Z

 

[Stew]

My dad has a couple of them. Great fun as a kid shooting 'em!

For some reason I just put a bid in on one on ebay....
Thanks a lot Red. No, really - thanks!

 

[swotty]

I still have mine in my toolbox at work for when the Makita goes flat....a fantastic tool!

 

[santaman2000]

I still have one of these (although not this particular brand) www.northerntool.com/shop/tools/product_200304109_200304109 from my days on the flightline.

It excepts sockets as well as varying sizes and styles of scredriver bits or torques head bits.

 

[dwardo]

Brings back nice memories of my old granddad using one thanks.
I will be on the lookout for one now so that I can give it a good home.

 

[Johnnyboy1971]

I had three of these and a host of other old hand tools all of which i left in the shed when i cleared my parents old house out. I remember there were at least three rebate planes and various others. Only thing i did take was an old brace and
auger bits.

 

[cbr6fs]

Been years since i've seen one of those, pretty much every tradesman used to have them as well.

With regards to cordless screwdrivers/drills, have you tried the newer versions?

I'm getting around 2 hours use out of my Makita DF030D on a battery and it comes with 2 batteries.
As it only takes about 1 hour to recharge the battery you can go all day between 2 batteries.

 

[British Red]

I have five batteries for my three Bosch drivers . I do use them when I have a lot of work on.....but I like the Yankee and if working in a place with no access to power, its a lot lighter than lugging a whole bunch of batteries with me...plus its nice just to use human power now and again - I confess I still use a Stanley #4 block plane -...call me old fashioned but it does all I need rather than a power planer

Part of what prompted this in my head was Rik's "things go wrong" post. No re-chargeable lasts forever and yet these old screwdrivers are still going strong....and are nearly as quick. I find that strangely comforting

 

[Tengu]

My grandfather had one...Im pretty sure its in my bits...somewhere

 

[Elen Sentier]

My dad had one and now it is mine . Like the add-ons idea, will tell the Hubby.

 

[crosslandkelly]

I'm getting around 2 hours use out of my Makita DF030D on a battery and it comes with 2 batteries.
As it only takes about 1 hour to recharge the battery you can go all day between 2 batteries.

Are they ni-cad or lithium-ion batteries. The lithium-ion ones are half the weight and seem to last longer.

 

[joe.ford]

Thanks for starting this thread.

I've managed to acquire 2 of these over the years. 1 from an old neighbor that moved out, and the other in a toolbox that was given to me by my old college woodwork tutor

Just got the one out of the toolbox, never actually used it. It's just there to look pretty, however I will have to get the adapter and start using it.

It's a Yankee No: 130, seems to work ok. Clonks and bangs now and then, assume it's full of gunk and the spring is a little slow to shoot the bit out.

Now off to check the stock for some degreaser.

Joe

 

[demographic]

I confess I still use a Stanley #4 block plane -...call me old fashioned but it does all I need rather than a power plane.

Stanley #4 is a smoother, if its a block plane its more likely to be a #9 1/2 (standard angle with adjustable mouth) or a #60 1/2 (low angle with adjustable mouth) or maybe a #220 which is at the standard angle but without the adjustable mouth.
I have a #4 Woden smoother which I hardly use, a #5 1/2 Stanley Jackplane which gets used a lot, a Veritas [FONT=Arial,Helvetica,Univers,Zurich BT][SIZE=-1]P2201 [/SIZE][/FONT]low angle block plane (bought before the spazzy looking ball handles were standard) which is about the nicest tool I own. Worth every penny of the £85 I spent on it at the time.
Oh and a De-Walt powerplaner which although a good fast tool, its noisy and messy to use and if I can get away without I do.

I also prefer to do the job quietly with a handplane than to carry a 110 transformer, 110 leads and powerplaner about if I can get away with it.
Sometimes its needed but sometimes its that much of a faff cleaning up after the powerplaner (even using its chippings bag attached it doesn't catch everything and if I'm working somewhere that's got carpets down handplane shavings are a lot easier to clean up than ones from a planer) and carrying a hoover about all over the place.

I'm pretty set on the cordlesses though, that's not changing fast.

 

[cbr6fs]

Are they ni-cad or lithium-ion batteries. The lithium-ion ones are half the weight and seem to last longer.

Been using Lithium based batteries in my radio controlled stuff for the last 10 years or so, so i have to put my hand up and say i'm a convert.

I had a old Bosch cordless screwdriver of the type that actually looks like a screwdriver rather than a drill, and the newer Makita is a fair bit bigger but still a lot lighter

*edit because it's a Lithium battery. .

The clutch is also fantastic.
I can go from tightening 13mm bolts on my car or motorbike to 4mm screws into plastic on my RC stuff without any problems.


To be honest though if your in a position to get your bodyweight behind the driver i think these yankee drivers are absolutely fantastic.
Only downside i found was if your up a ladder and struggling to get some leverage behind the driver.

Still great to see then again though, brings back memories of me Dad doing DIY with his other latest toy the Workmate