A video of a Swiss man restoring an old ratcheting screwdriver.

[Black Forest]

This is what I thought a very interesting view. What especially caught me fancy was him making a small ball on his mill with a boring head.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JmSXo0XdWoA

[alanganes]

There was someone selling one of those ratcheting screwdrivers that had it listed on Craig's list for quite a while. I don't recall what they were asking for it but it was not a lot and I would have gotten it if it were just a bit closer to me. I don't know how old that one was (I'd have guessed 1950's maybe) but it looked like an interesting design.

I agree, making the ball like that is pretty cool. I saw that someplace before but have never tried it.

I can't stand watching a lot of the "tool restoration" stuff on Youtube, lots of them are just not that interesting to me, but this actually beat my 2 minute attention span, and got me to sit still and watch the whole thing. I like that he did a full restoration, including fixing most all of the rust damage and then plating the parts. That guy has a lot more patience (and skill) than I do.

[eKretz]

It's cool, but I have a feeling it's not going to be a user. Cosmetically looks great but welding on what I assume were tool steel parts probably turned them into mush. Looks very nice though.

[pinstripe]

I think Tom Lipton covers the ball-milling technique in his book.

According to the video title, the screwdriver is from 1891.

[fixerup]

Well done video. It would be a nice type of project for me to undertake, maybe I would finally manage to complete a whole restoration project LOL. Good point about welding the tool steel. Welding it changed the temper of the tool steel, I guess it could be heated again and harden to somewhat its original state. I was wondering if this filler technique was common way to restore old bent out of shape rusted parts, instead of making them from scratch.He surface welded the ratchet lever extension , screw driver shaft and the ratchet body. I guess, it saves you time taken from measuring and sketching a drawing, buying the needed material and then machining the part. I am always worried to damage my H.S.S cutters cutting through the hard welded surface. I saw him using carbide insert, I guess that would be the way to go. Is there a special mig wire to use for this kind of resurfacing repair? Is there other disadvantages other than loosing the temper and having to machine the hard weld.... I have a mig welder and didn't realize it could do other task than just weld stuff together. Resurfacing, next time, I will have to give it try and see.

[Black Forest]

The biggest thing I have found when trying to fill in rusty areas is to hang in there long enough with the MIG to make sure you don't get undercut. If not you end up chasing the undercut with more weld. The tendency for me was to just hit it with what I thought would fill the pit. It did fill the pit but left undercut around the pit. If I felt I could get the metal clean enough I prefer to TIG it as I have more control but TIG and rust and impurities don't dance well together.

[Black Forest]

The other thing I liked about the video was the lack of annoying music and verbal diarrhea. Who was the cop in the old TV show that always said, Facts, just give me the facts.

[danlb]

Joe Friday said that a lot. "The facts. Just the facts Ma'am"

[Black Forest]

Joe Friday said that a lot. "The facts. Just the facts Ma'am"

Yes Joe Friday. What show was that?

[rwilliams]

Dragnet.

[Noitoen]

To fill parts with mig welding, you can help "hold" the weld with some copper bar. The weld wont stick to the copper and can be built quite high

[nickel-city-fab]

I saw that video and thought he did a very mice job -- certainly nothing to disagree with! Being that it's a screwdriver from 1891, I highly doubt there is any tool steel in it -- tool steel would have been conserved for actual cutting tools.

[754]

Just a thought, what if you built up hardened parts with brazing? Would thevtemp be low enough to not later the heat treat ?
I notice hardened parts corrode far slower than softer materials .

[jmm03]

I could not resist either, very workmanlike restore, especially that he actually saved the original parts as much as possible. What kind of mill was that? Thanks for posting. Jim

[Black Forest]

Did you all see the number of views of this video in less than two days? Nearly 900K. I looked at his uploaded videos and he has one with 26million views for a vise. Crazy.