Robert Larson 538-3010 Schroeder Hand Drill 1/4-Inch Capacity (2)

You can tell by looking, this is a drill for applications requiring stability and control of movement but, also, for those of us who have trouble using an electric drill. I always tilt to one side, due to arthritis I developed as a child. This allows me to be productive, in my home, doing chores I would otherwise have to outsource, but at a slower pace than if I used an electric drill. That is invaluable to me, as a person who is always tinkering and fixing things and who hates spending money I don't have to pay someone to do something I believe I should be able to do myself.The device itself, a hand drill, also called a manual drill, is the perfect type. The handle is nice, solid wood, with a metal gear plate running along the metal gear-edged housing for the drill bit. Standard bits fit. The little dial/turn handle is easy to turn. And, in what may be the best feature for me, with my hands being what they are, Schroeder has kept to the old tradition of using a wooden handle that is long, which extends off the end of the metal unit, rather than the new style of turning downward.There is an odd movement in the manufacturing of new "old things", which has been developing over the last couple of decades. We see terrible redesigns hitting the market all the time, as though reinventing the wheel makes sense. These hand drills, unfortunately, are often made with a gun-style grip, turned and aimed downward from the drill. Now that style of grip certainly looks nice, seems appealing, but, in the reality of use, a down-turned grip makes it difficult to hold this type of unit while you are drilling, given how long it can take to drill, by forcing you to hold the unit in a position that can start to hurt your wrist. This wonderful unit, being straight, allows you to hold it with your fist, thumb at the back end, pinky-finger gripping around the top of the handle, up near the metal parts, which results in aiming the unit easily and being able to press it, harder, against the wall or piece of wood, without hurting your wrist or fingers. Try to remember, if you can, the joy of eating food with a spoon sticking out between your thumb and forefinger, the handle held in your fist, how easy it was, how comfortable, before the world told you to start contorting your fingers in compliance with the conventional etiquette of silverware usage. This feels like that, easy, comfortable, safe, controlled and natural.The Schroeder is the best I have found, just like my grandfather's little drill from the twenties, and it allows me to do the job carefully, correctly and without hurting my joints. Good luck in finding what you need and what will get the job done.

There aren't a whole lot of hand drills available. Most tool manufacturers assume that everybody wants electric drills all the time, but there are plenty of reasons why one would want to drill holes with one's own bio-energy as the power source. It's quiet, ultra-portable, and eco-friendly to the Nth degree. But what kind of hand drill is best? There are three designs. The spiral-sliding kind delivers pressure onto the bit easily but won't give you continuous rotation because it stops turning while you slide the cuff back up the shaft. A classic bit-brace allows you to bear down and turn continuously, but your RPMs are limited to the speed at which you can whip your arm around - and you have to have a few cubic feet of space to operate. Sometimes you need faster rotation, and sometimes you have to work in a relatively confined space. That's when you need a crank drill; it's compact and has a gear ratio giving you about three rotations of the bit for every single rotataion of the crank wheel. Of the three models I've seen, the Schroeder is probably the best-made. The shaft is thicker, the gears are sturdier and the chuck is more massive. I own one of the Fiskars craft drills and I like it (the pistol grip makes it easier and perhaps safer to manipulate) but the Fiskars gears must be made of plastic; sometimes they slip. I don't think that problem is even possible with the Schroeder. Although its bright orange-painted crank wheel gives it a festive "Lego" appearance, this is a serious tool. It's heavy and well-constructed, and I fully expect it to last a lifetime.There are a few minor design flaws. With the exposed gear, it is possible to pinch your fingers in the sprocket teeth if you're not careful. As I mentioned already, the screwdriver-handle is not as easy to hold & push forward as the Fiskars grip, but Schroeder makes up for that by being stronger & more mechanically reliable. The product description claims that this drill will hold a 1/4 inch bit. It is true that you can fit a bit that large into the chuck, but you're not going to have enough torque to actually TURN it ... and I've found that the chuck will slip off of bits bigger than 1/8, leaving you with the delightful problem of extracting a stuck bit from a half-drilled hole.But, let me stress, this is a VERY well-made tool: solid, dependable and perfect for drilling _small_ holes in wood, putty, various construction & sculptural materials, basically anything hard that you need to poke small holes into. I bought it as a replacement for my old Fiskars, and it's definitely an upgrade from that.

I picked this up after seeing something similar being used on a TV show, and after my screwdriver and hammer it's now pretty much my most used tool. It is really great for all the small jobs you have around the house, mounting things on walls and whatnot, when really a power drill is just overkill. With this you don't have to find a place to plug it in and then wrestle with the cord, or worry about if your battery powered drill is charged and ready to go. Plus, it's much safer than a power drill since it's only 'running' when you are turning the crank, and even then it isn't going to be going that fast. It goes without saying that this is also a great tool for if you are working somewhere that a power drill might get wet, and it's great for outdoors or places where you don't have electricity handy.Now, this is not going to work for projects where you have a lot of serious drilling to do, or when you need to drill into some relatively hard wood. Not only will it be hard for you to get it going through hard wood, but this is where the one minor flaw in the chuck comes to light - it's simply a hand-tighten chuck, so if you are drilling a lot or drilling into something hard it will probably come loose, but for your simple projects it's not an issue, and even if it does come loose you aren't going to fast as for it to create a hazard. Also, as the description says it can only take bits up to 1/4" in diameter, but again for most typical household projects this won't be a problem.Overall, I think this is a great tool. It seems pretty sturdy (I've had it over a year now and it's going strong), and if for some reason it ever did break I would have to get a new one immediately - it's that essential to my tool kit now. I give it five stars for being good at what it is, and not trying to be what it isn't.