Tool Review: The Bridge City PB2 Palm Brace

I’m a sucker for a pretty brace. I’ve admired the oh so pretty Bridge City PB2 palm brace for quite a while. Its not a cheap tool, and I finally cracked when it was on sale at a very steep discount.

My verdict - It’s an excellent brace for driving screws, but inferior to a classic brace for everything else. The chuck is a quick change 1/4 inch hex chuck, and this is its main weakness in my view. Quick change chucks have a little bit of slop in them. If they didn’t, it would be extremely difficult to get the bits in and out.

This quick change chuck is very well made, but the little bit of slop makes it inferior to a classic brace for drilling. A classic 2 or 3 jaw chuck has absolutely zero slop. When you drill a hole with this brace, it cant help but allow the bit to wiggle around making for a less precise hole. This is me being very picky, for 9 out of 10 uses this will drill just fine.

If you looked at a board I drilled a series of holes in, you would have to look very hard to tell the difference. Its drilling holes that are neater than just about any you would drill with a battery powered drill. But, its a noticeably worse experience than drilling carefully with one of my classic braces. For larger bits, I’m going to stick with drilling with a brace, for smaller holes, I will still be drilling with an egg beater.

The other shortcoming is that this brace has no ratchet. This is a shame, given its very small size, a ratchet would really increase the number of situations where it would be useful.

My ideal iteration of this brace would be to replace the quick change chuck with a 3 jaw chuck and add a ratchet. If they made a PB3 with that feature set, I would be saving up my pennies again.

That said, I love driving screws with a brace. Its far easier and quicker than with a hand held screwdriver, far less likely to strip than a battery powered drill. You can feel exactly how much power to apply at any moment. While vintage screwdriver bits exist , they are typically only in larger sizes and I’ve never seen one for philips, torx or other modern bits. I have been happily using a Veritas 1/4 inch bit holder for driving most screws for a long time. The chuck in the PB2 has a lot less slop than the Veritas bit holder, so it is a very significant upgrade.

The PB2 is heavier than you expect it to be and very comfortable in the hand. Its rare to need that much force on average sized screws, so the small size makes for very quick work. I’m a fan of the tool, but in my opinion, you should view it as a very high end screwdriver rather than an all round brace.

PB2 Brace