Jack Rabbit Tool Review

Anyone who has followed Norm Abram and The New Yankee Workshop and the tool guide at my website (NormsTools.com) knows that the Jack Rabbit first showed up on the show in 1999, and has been a staple ever since. There are several drill/driver combinations on the market such as the Drill 'n Drive (which Norm used for quite a while) and the Insty-Bit tool (which Norm has also used). In fact, I've tried those and others with varied satisfaction. After several years of watching, the opportunity arose to obtain a kit and I can report with satisfaction that it is superior to the others with which I am familiar.

When you see the kit in its original packing it seems to take up quite a bit of room. This is the backing card with all of the instructions (it doesn't need many).

And it's packaged with the box open, like this, which reinforces the notion.

Included are four different drill bit/countersink/bore sub assemblies (all in the lid when it arrives—one is installed on the main drill shaft here in the bottom of the box), Allen wrench, two open end wrenches, a magnet, and a stop collar, plus the aforementioned main drill shaft and two driver bits.

However, once out of the package, and the lid closed, it's a surprisingly compact kit.

One of the attractive features in my mind is the drill bits are standard, hardware store variety, jobber length (what does that mean, anyway?) drill bits, so if you get over aggressive and break one, there's no long wait for a proprietary replacement from the manufacturer.

The working parts are two basic assemblies which are joined and then separated, depending on what phase of the operation you're in. This is a view of the drill/countersink/bore assembly on the left, and the driver bit (with magnet attached) on the right. The driver bit is chucked in the drill and pretty much stays there.

Note the flat on the shank of the main drill assembly (left) and the similar flat on the drill bit subassembly (below). Those are to accommodate the open end wrenches when assembling the main shank and a drill bit subassembly.

Here we see the two assemblies together as when one drills the holes (and countersink/bore) for the screws to be used to attach the parts of your project.

In this shot, the magnet has been installed on the driver bit. It has no function when the drill assembly is installed—its purpose is to magnetize the driver bit in order to hold the screws.

The drill assembly is held quite firmly to the driver bit with spring loaded balls in the round receiver closest to the magnet. They are released by pulling the receiver sleeve (in the same motion as pulling the assembly off the bit) allowing the balls to retract into interior detents. Quite clever engineering.

For those occasions when you would want to drill a number of countersinks or counterbores to a specific, repeatable depth, a stop collar is provided. The clever engineering repeats as there's enough range of closure in the collar to accommodate each of the four size drill assemblies provided.

Moreover, each drill bit collar has the same thread at the end to fit in the common shank of the bit assembly body. All tools needed for changing bits or any other assembly/disassembly are included in the kit.

This is a cleverly engineered, well made accessory which should fit anyone's needs who uses screws in their various assembly projects. Although supplied by the manufacturer, I noticed in one episode that Norm clearly has two Jack Rabbits. Sort of goes along with his router-for-every-bit philosophy.