Vintage Black and Decker drill and drill press

[AlexWistlib]

Hi All, now I have to apologise because I think I’m using this forum all wrong and I might be replying to a post about how to make custard. So, job and knock thanks for the great reply, I’m thinking orange and white dn720, but the plastic body sounds horrible, so is there an all metal alternative or should I go for an earlier gold one? Maybe.
Some seem have decent chucks and some look like it’s made of plasticine. Wgt52 thanks, I won’t ask to buy, don’t worry
Anyway, these drills seem cheap enough on eBay, certainly cheaper than the stationary engines that I usually look at, the problem is you can’t handle what you’re buying.
Tigercubrider, modern stuff has no soul, no history, and Harry it’s not the shape of the hole that matters, it’s what you do with it that counts
And as for the drill press, I’ll keep it for now. Thanks all

 

[Deleted member 174758]

Hi All, now I have to apologise because I think I’m using this forum all wrong and I might be replying to a post about how to make custard

Well, Alex, in answer to your question I prefer using Bird's custard powder and cat's milk....

But to get back OT... If you go for an all metal body drill, you'll be looking at a still earlier tool (early 70s at the latest) - I believe that they top out at about, 370 watts maximum power, but can't be certain. There were certainly 2-speed models, but most if not all lacked the impact mechanism. You'll see all gold, gold/silver, gold/dk. brown and lt. grey/blue painted models. You should still be looking for a D720 (or possibly a D520). With such old tools I would recommend replacing the cord as old cords are often perished, and please, please, please only use a metal bodied tool plugged in through an RCD plug - the metal bodies can become live in the event if a failure, so an RCD makes sense. I'll post a few pics of metal bodied B&Ds for you tomorrow

...and Harry it’s not the shape of the hole that matters, it’s what you do with it that counts

Careful, now! (think of it spoken in a Craggy Island lilt... )

 

[AlexWistlib]

That’s great, thanks for the info. Gold / dark brown sounds very ‘70’s, a bit like our old avocado bathroom suite. I will re-cable and definitely use an RCD. Thanks for the advice

 

[Deleted member 174758]

This is an example of the gold/dark brown livery:

It's actually a D520, the 2-speed model one down from the D720, so it has 315 watts and (I think) a 5/16in (?) chuck. For some reason these gold/brown D520s come up in seemingly good nick quite often, whereas I can't recall seeing many D720s like this one (350 watts, 1/2in chuck):

AFAIK the previous model was all gold, like this one (note the lower power at 290 watts of a nominally higher spec model) which has a 3/8in chuck:

After the gold/brown models (I think) there was a short-lived (?) white/blue all metal model which I haven't seen many of (not to be confused with later light grey metal gearbox/blue plastic body models), then you are into the V-series (gold metal gearbox/white nylon body) and then the light grey metal gearbox/orange plastic body DN520 and DN720s you so dislike