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Tell me about this Thor Power Drill

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Ohio Andy

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I found this Sears box labeled "Li'l Crafty Rotary Electric Toolkit" and I thought "this will be cool".
thor_box_01.jpg

And then I opened it! Not at all what was inside.
thor_02.jpg

And yes, it works. Here is a close up where it says "Thor"

thor_03.jpg

I never remember seeing this growing up so I assume that it was owned by one of my grandfathers.

Inside the case there is a date from 1971 written. Is it possible that this is as new as 1971? I really have no use for this, but, I kept it for no good reason. My "Google Foo" was not good when I searched for this, then again, I worked hard all day and I am tired.

I figure I will try to get as much information as I can on this and then convince myself to get rid of it.... I cannot keep everything.
 
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Mintgrun

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I try to resist buying more drills I don't need, but I would ****** that one up in a heartbeat.

There are several old Thor tools catalogs in the Internet Archive and there's a chance you'll come across yours if you flip through them. (I just scanned some and didn't see it though).

Here's a link to their catalogs.

Internet Archive: Digital Library of Free & Borrowable Texts, Movies, Music & Wayback Machine

archive.org archive.org

It looks like there is an ID tag on top of your drill. Can you share a photo of that?

The keyless chuck is a bonus.
 
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Provincial

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Thor was bought out in the early 1960's by Stewart-Warner Corporation, who closed it out soon thereafter. Your drill was probably made prior to 1960, and probably much earlier.
 
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driftpin

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I have since new a Sears 'L'il Crafty' die-cast housing rotary tool, like a Dremel. It's probably 61 years old. I asked for it for Christmas to work on my slot cars, as a kid. The cut-off discs are what I used the most, and while I have modern Dremel tools, the 'L'il Crafty' sits in its hard plastic original box, waiting for another job.

The Sears tool I used for doing some work in confined spaces, and on more-than one event, it saved me by allowing something to be worked-upon that presented a significant difficulty in feasibly doing the work otherwise.

I suspect your drill may be something post WW II except for the keyless chuck. Someone took a bit of time to cut-out that box to accept the drill. I'm pretty-sure that my father had a newer Thor drill, also aluminum die-cast, but with a newer design, fewer holes in the housing, a 3/8" keyed chuck, and I don't recall that it was reversible or variable speed.

As I recall, the drill was something like this:

1722772238918.png

though not exactly. I don't recall the round "3/8" label on the nose. I think mine has the rear horizontal vents and the forward vertical vents for the armature fan. It has that sleek, aluminum die-cast appearance, two halves with a vertical seam. I think I still am in possession of the drill, in off-site storage, I'll keep an eye out for it next time I go there.

About the purchase by Stewart-Warner, there's an article in Hemmings about the company. It says S-W was the largest shareholder, but they withdrew an offer to buy the company due to accounting methods used by Speedway/Thor clouding its true financial condition.
 
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Ohio Andy

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I did not even notice the stuff on the top; it is difficult to read.
thor_top_01.jpg

The top reads:

MAD 1/4 110
Model 5041 (or is that 5044??)
Serial 43758
RPM 2500 AMP 1.8

I wonder if my Grandfather painted it or if it came that way.... Because I found this video where a guy restores one and it is all shiny chrome.


This looks similar to:

archive.org

Thor Portable Electric Tools : Catalog 35 B : Independent Pneumatic Tool Co. : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

52 p., illus., 27.9 cm, trade catalog
archive.org

Page 4 of Catalog 35.

I teach this morning, but I will see if i can verify that is model 5041 or 5044 when I get back. (now I need to not forget).

Thanks so much for the links.
 
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Ohio Andy

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driftpin said:
I have since new a Sears 'L'il Crafty' die-cast housing rotary tool, like a Dremel. It's probably 61 years old. I asked for it for Christmas to work on my slot cars, as a kid. The cut-off discs are what I used the most, and while I have modern Dremel tools, the 'L'il Crafty' sits in its hard plastic original box, waiting for another job.

The Sears tool I used for doing some work in confined spaces, and on more-than one event, it saved me by allowing something to be worked-upon that presented a significant difficulty in feasibly doing the work otherwise.

I suspect your drill may be something post WW II except for the keyless chuck. Someone took a bit of time to cut-out that box to accept the drill. I'm pretty-sure that my father had a newer Thor drill, also aluminum die-cast, but with a newer design, fewer holes in the housing, a 3/8" keyed chuck, and I don't recall that it was reversible or variable speed.

As I recall, the drill was something like this:

1722772238918.png

That looks remarkably similar to the old Craftsman my Father had; might still be in his basement, but he lives 4 hours away.
Click to expand...
 
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Mintgrun

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Thank you for the photo of the tag. Model 5041. The patent numbers might give some clues as to the age. I wonder if the 43 at the beginning of the serial number could be the year of manufacture. It might be a little older than that.

The gray paint is not original, but at least it is a nice color. I wonder if it could have been a military tool. Although, they would have probably stamped a military ID number into the aluminum body.

Typing in the model number and then doing a Google image search is another way to gather information, or at least see other examples. Click on one that looks similar and others will show up below that.
 
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larry_g

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Is there any information on the chuck? That chuck looks like a newer style than the drill motor as well as the 3 prong plug.

lg
no neat sig line
 
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RTM

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Ohio Andy

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The more I look into this drill, the cooler it becomes. I find very little information on it, however. The first clue of its existence is the 1940 catalog numbered 35B, which makes me wonder if this drill could have been available before 1940. Oddly, the catalog list sizes but not model numbers.


And I would not have noticed the quick release chuck (as someone pointed out here). The Vintage Machinery site has numerous schematics for drills, but their earliest schematics start with the 6xxx model line.

I think I just need to sell this thing because the more I know about it, the harder it is to get rid of it, and I think that I just do not have room.
 
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American Locomotive

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Ohio Andy said:
I think I just need to sell this thing because the more I know about it, the harder it is to get rid of it, and I think that I just do not have room.
Click to expand...
Unfortunately antique drills like this have very little resale value. There is just very little demand for them, likely because there's an absolute ton of them still around, and modern variable-speed drills are just a lot better to use.

I will say that yours looks pretty cool, even as far as antique drills go, and the keyless chuck is something I've never seen before on a drill that old. I don't think drills really started getting keyless chucks as standard equipment until the 90s.
 
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Ohio Andy

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I posted it in the classified section for a steal so I cannot change my mind. You guys have been too helpful to me to bother to actually money on this.

I looked through all the older catalogs and saw no evidence of this particular chuck, but.... everything has the same paint job so it feels like it would have come with the drill. Also, the paint job looks professional. We might be able to understand where that chuck came from, but at least one of my grandfathers would have been well versed in doing things such as changing the chuck so perhaps it is as simple as that.
 
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Ohio Andy

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American Locomotive said:
Unfortunately antique drills like this have very little resale value. There is just very little demand for them, likely because there's an absolute ton of them still around, and modern variable-speed drills are just a lot better to use.

I will say that yours looks pretty cool, even as far as antique drills go, and the keyless chuck is something I've never seen before on a drill that old. I don't think drills really started getting keyless chucks as standard equipment until the 90s.
Click to expand...
Which is why I posted it for so little. Not even going to try to make money on this. My wife said something like "maybe you should just sell it" and I said that at the end of the day I mostly just want someone who will appreciate it to have it.
 
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