Millers Falls model B 1 inch electric impact wrench

532r5 · Oct 21, 2025

Just saved this from the dumpster at work today.

Shiftless · Oct 21, 2025

Nice save!

Now you just need to find a set of one inch drive impact sockets somewhere…

532r5 · Oct 22, 2025

I have a bunch of sockets already. I searched for information on this model and didn't come up with anything.

Shiftless · Oct 22, 2025

532r5 said:
I have a bunch of sockets already. I searched for information on this model and didn't come up with anything.

Even it that tool is hopelessly broken, the case will look great after you clean and polish it it up to a mirror shine. Check out the tool polishers thread or Don Long’s big party garage.

532r5 · Oct 22, 2025

I plugged it in and it works. The forward and reverse switch is broken but it still works. Would love to find some information on it but so far can't find anything.

RTM · Oct 22, 2025

Looking at their 1938 catalog, most of the power tools are numbers, not letters, so I’m proposing that it might be a earlier than that. Lots of rugged tools shown, so I’m guessing it’s close to the right era.

Millers Falls : 70th Anniversary : Catalog No. 42 : Millers Falls Co. : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

260 p., illus., 17.6 cm, trade catalog

archive.org

cowades206 · Oct 22, 2025

Probably won't help, but the manufacturer was Ingersoll Rand.
Their model number was 8056, but in the 1962 catalog it doesn't really say much, found this in Archive.org

RTM · Oct 23, 2025

cowades206 said:
Their model number was 8056, but in the 1962 catalog it doesn't really say much, found this in Archive.org

Blows my theory out of the water.

cowades206 · Oct 24, 2025

RTM said:
Blows my theory out of the water.

Not necessarily. They may have made it for a long time and the 60's may have been near the end of the run. They made the 1/2" drive WS550 for like 30-40 years without bothering to improve anything. I wish there was more info available on the IR electric impacts.

RTM · Oct 24, 2025

Here is a bit of help from google AI

The first patent for a pneumatic impact wrench was filed in 1932, with the first commercial model developed by Chicago Pneumatic in 1939. Earlier versions were manual, requiring a manual impact. The pneumatic version of the impact tool, generating force through compressed air, was developed to provide higher power and efficiency for industrial and construction applications.

1932: The impact tool was invented.
1934: Ingersoll Rand bought the patent.
1939: Chicago Pneumatic designed and manufactured the world's first impact wrench, in both pneumatic and electric versions.

US2012916A - Impact tool - Google Patents

So that really great IR catalog from 1921, all 242 pages of it, was of no real value in this search, other than entertainment,