When I was a kid, early 1960's, I was into HO slotcars. I had a scale mile of track in my bedroom and that was after I built a white pine/plywood table for it, 4' x 13'. I asked my father to buy a drill so I could make the table, and he went to a hardware store on his way from work, and bought one. He also entered some contest the store was running, and shortly after he got a call that he won $100.
$100 in 1961=$1049 in 2024
https://aier.org/cost-of-living-calculator/
That meant the drill was 'free,' and he gave me some of the $ and I forget what I did w/it. The drill was an early 1960's Thor, w/an aluminum die-cast housing & 3/8" jacobs chuck. . I may still have it somewhere, I haven't seen it in ages and I don't recall using it in decades. It's so-old, I don't recall if it had a reverse switch on it, I don't believe it did. This is very-close to what I believe it was:
I still have an Aurora HO slot car box layout, here are some of the fleet. AJ's Silastic slicks rule!:
