Brace (tool)

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Brace (tool)

A brace or brace and bit is a hand tool

Hand tool

A hand tool is a device for performing work on a material or a physical system using only hands. The hand tools can be manually used employing mechanical force, or electrically powered, using electrical current....
used to drill

Drill

A drill is a tool with a rotating drill bit used for drilling holes in various materials. Drills are commonly used in woodworking, metalworking, construction and most "Do it yourself" projects....
holes, usually in wood

Wood

Wood is an organic material; in the strict sense wood is produced as secondary xylem in the stems of woody plants, notably trees but also shrubs, etc....
. Pressure is applied to the top and the tool is rotated with a U-shaped grip.

The U-shaped part is a kind of crankshaft

Crankshaft

The crankshaft, sometimes casually abbreviated to crank , is the part of an engine which translates reciprocation linear piston motion into rotation....
. It gives the brace much greater torque

Torque

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A brace or brace and bit is a hand tool

Hand tool

Drill

Wood

Crankshaft

The crankshaft, sometimes casually abbreviated to crank , is the part of an engine which translates reciprocation linear piston motion into rotation....
. It gives the brace much greater torque

Torque

Torque is the tendency of a force to rotate an object about an axis . Just as a force is a push or a pull, a torque can be thought of as a twist....
than other kinds of hand drill; a brace can be used to drill much wider, and deeper, holes than can a gear-driven hand drill. The price of the greater torque is lower rotational speed; it is easy to for a hand drill to achieve a rotational speed of several hundred revolutions per minute

Revolutions per minute

Revolutions per minute is a units of measurement of frequency: the number of Turn completed in one minute around a rotation around a fixed axis....
, but it requires considerable effort to achieve even 100 rpm with a brace. It is also difficult to hold a brace exactly straight while using it, which makes the brace unsuitable for precision drilling.

The front part of the brace consists of a chuck

Chuck (engineering)

A chuck is a specialized type of Clamp used to hold rotating tools or materials....
spindle with V-shaped brackets or clamp

CLAMP

is a female-only Japan mangaka group. The group's manga series are often made into anime after release. Almost 100 million Clamp tankobon copies have been sold worldwide as of October 2007....
s inside. Turning the spindle of the chuck in a clockwise direction tightens the drill bit

Drill bit

Drill bits are cutting tools used to create cylindrical holes. Bits are held in a tool called a drill, which rotates them and provides torque and axial force to create the hole....
in the chuck and turning in a counter-clockwise direction loosens the bit for removal.

In most braces, immediately behind the chuck is a three position gear

Gear

A gear is a component within a Transmission device that transmits rotational force to another gear or device. A gear is different from a pulley in that a gear is a round wheel that has linkages that mesh with other gear teeth, allowing force to be fully transferred without slippage....
release which allows ratcheting

Ratchet (device)

In mechanical engineering, a ratchet is a device that allows linear or rotary motion in only one direction, while preventing motion in the opposite direction....
of the handle when in tight spots. Turning the gear release from the center position allows ratcheting the brace in the direction needed. Turning the gear release fully clockwise lets it remove wood in a clockwise direction with the ratchet action going counter-clockwise. Placing the gear release fully counter-clockwise then allows turning the brace and bit in a counter-clockwise direction, usually to remove the drill bit from the hole. The center position of the gear release prohibits the ratcheting effect.

The U-shaped crank has a wooden spindle on it and, along with the top spindle, is allowed to freely turn under the hands without producing wear and tear on the hands (thus, no blister

Blister

A blister is a small pocket of fluid within the upper layers of the skin, typically caused by forceful rubbing , burning, freezing, chemical exposure or infection....
s).