Saturday, September 26, 2026
Don't fix it if it ain't broke

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The first cordless drill, no battery involved

A Stanley Yankee push drill from around the 1970s. Same idea, not a Craftsman, and not the one in the story.
A Stanley Yankee push drill from around the 1970s. Same idea, not a Craftsman, and not the one in the story. Photo: R. Henrik Nilsson, CC BY 4.0. The real one is in the original post.

Something needed hanging in the kitchen, and the good Makita was out on a job site. So out came this Craftsman, which has been in Dad's toolbox for as long as his 62-year-old kid can remember, back to around 1960. It works like a Yankee screwdriver with a sleeve over the works. Push down and a spiral inside turns the bit, and a spring brings the handle back up. It isn't for precision. Before battery drills were common it made a lot of pilot holes for shelf brackets and plant hooks, and it's the right tool for somebody up a ladder who needs one hole to hang a junction box on a joist and would rather not climb down for a heavy drill.

The original set of bits is stored inside the handle.

Retold from a post on r/BuyItForLife. Read the original

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