"Michael Black"

Phil Allison wrote:

I have not seen a 3 wire, hand held drill in quite a while.


That's odd. My Black & Decker from 1975 (variable speed, but only one
direction) has a three prong plug, still works fine, though about 25 years
ago I had to put in replacement brushes.


** A double insulated or "class 2" appliance may have a 3
pronged plug.

Egs, my Black & Decker 1600W heat gun and Atlas Copco
drill have 3 pin plugs but are clearly labelled "class 2" .

The AC cords have only two conductors.



In about the past five years, I bought another B&D drill at a garage sale
for a few dollars, that one maybe has two prongs, but the B&D drill that I
found in the garbage when the students moved out (which does reverse) is
three pronged.

** See above - look for the double square symbol.


Of course, now one has the option of getting a cordless drill, which is
certainly a whole lot safer,

** Well yes and no...

If you need to drill into walls it is possible to penetrate an AC
power cable and have the drill become electrified. Typically
the drill bit, chuck and metal cased gear box will be live -
the Atlas Copco drill has a plastic coating all over the chuck
and the drill body for this reason as do most modern units.



..... Phil