Circular and Saber saws powerd by drill

[Beauregard]

I came across these at an estate sale.
They are four small tools, two circular saws, and two saber saws, that have no motors. They all have a shaft that fits into the chuck of a 1/4 power drill, which provides power to the tool.
I'm not certain of the age of these tools, but my thinking is they go back to a time when the only power tool a homeowner would have was a power drill. These would be a cheaper way to expand their power tools using only one power source.
Is anyone here familiar with these type of tools and their age and values?
Two of them are in very good condition. One of the saber saws is very complete and still has the box, instructions, and original spare blades.
Thanks for any help.

 

[Farmer J.]

Those are quite neat, for occasional use.
I used to have a Black and Decker circular saw attachment around 1970 which used my B+D drill to power it, but I had to remove the chuck from the drill and clamp it in to the body of the saw.
It was useful for sawing jobs like plywood as long as all the big saw cuts were done before I needed to drill any holes!
After the drill was stolen the attachment was worthless...

 

[Lettusbee]

I have an old craftsman drill and the manual contains an ad for the circular saw attachment.
First I've ever seen it and now it shows up here.

 

[acer66]

Not familiar with those but my dad has a similar set made by Bosch.
Geared to home owners back in the day when power tools were expensive like you said.

 

[Zrxrunner]

Check out the old powr-kraft catalogs on vintage machinery website. The lower right one says mongomery ward, which is where powr-kraft was sold. They had some very unique and surprising attachments like this. There was one book from the 60's that had a chainsaw attachment for your circular saw!! I don't have the direct link to it, but I was researching an old 1/4" drill I came across

 

[dutchgray]

They were extremely common here in the UK until power tools started to get cheaper, atleast into the 1970's, even diy grade drills were expensive then in real terms compared to now.
You could get all kinds of accessories, I have seen, circular saws, jig saws, sanders, small wood lathes, hedge cutters.

 

[dutchgray]

Check out the old powr-kraft catalogs on vintage machinery website. The lower right one says mongomery ward, which is where powr-kraft was sold. They had some very unique and surprising attachments like this. There was one book from the 60's that had a chainsaw attachment for your circular saw!! I don't have the direct link to it, but I was researching an old 1/4" drill I came across

You can still get chainsaw attachments for circular saws, or you can get a saw made like that called a Sword saw. A tool the traditional timber framers would probably have for cutting beams.

 

[Milton Shaw]

My dad had a B & D set for a 1/4 inch drill. Very underpowered and slow. You could cut a lot faster with a dull handsaw. A sharp handsaw would have cut circles around it. More of a novelty instead of a useful too. The 1/4 inch drill was even under powered for a 1/4 drill bit much less a saw blade.

 

[Beauregard]

I have attached them to a small 3/8" VSR drill and they seem to do very well.
Does anyone have any interest in them?

 

[d42jeep]

Here is a Dunlap set I bought because I liked the case. The remaining part inside was a saw designed to attach to a Dunlap or Craftsman drill. Looked kind of dangerous to me.
-Don

 

[f121]

I found a B&D one when clearing my grandfathers garage, looked terrifying!

 

[vavet]

Seems like it would be awkward to use, but it's a cool idea and a really neat thing to have.

 

[Beauregard]

Yes, they are dangerous and somewhat awkward to use. They represent a time of at least two era's ago in power tools; Before the cordless revolution and before the corded power tools became affordable and popular. A time when the only power tool most owned was a corded 1/4" power drill.
Driving our '59 Chevy is also dangerous and awkward on today's roads, but it's still kind of fun.

 

[RedVise]

. A time when the only power tool most owned was a corded 1/4" power drill.

My thoughts exactly. We had a '50 Ford coup, ugly as sin. Manual brakes.

Brian

 

[JRC3]

I can almost smell the ozone of an old drill. And now that I said that, you do to.