r/ToolRepair

2 years ago I picked up a well used 1950's Skil 107 'Orange Label' 10" worm drive saw for a very reasonable price because it was labeled as "for parts only - non-functional" due to a broken wire at one of the brush holders.

I stripped the saw down, cleaned the general gunk off it, wire wheeled it and then, shortly after, my partner and I moved to a new state and I started working some pretty insane hours for the last year and a half, so up until 2 weeks ago, it sat in a tote in pieces.

In February, I got a new job with a much better work life balance and slowly began finishing up projects I had laying all around the garage.

2 weeks ago, I opened the tote, took the housing parts out, mixed up a bucket of boiling water and dawn soap and began scrubbing the saw clesn. Wiped it down with solvent, masked it off and put on 2 coats of primer, 2 coats of metallic aluminum base and 2 coats of high gloss 2k clear.

I made new gaskets out of 1/8" cork rubber felpro gasket material and 1/16" nitrile gasket material, applied a thin coat of Permatex 82180 ultra black RTV and began reassembly of the saw.

I fixed the broken brush holder clamp on the field, let the brush holders sit in the freezer for a few days to shrink just enough to fit back in the housing and started rolling on the rebuild.

I replaced the gaskets, blued the blade washer and bolt, angle adjustment bolt, strain relief spring, fill cap and switch, fixed the broken brush holders field clip, put heat shrink on the original cloth conductors, installed a new cord, refilled it with Skil 80111 worm drive lube and got a set of reproduction nameplates made for it.

I cut a diamond KO into a new Frued Diablo 10" blade with a dremel, replaced the brushes and brush caps with new ones from Eurton and today just finished reassembly when the new nameplates came in.

Very happy with how this restoration turned out. Mechanically it was in excellent shape. Bearing and leather input & output shaft seals showed very little, if any wear, so I mostly reused everything but the gaskets, cord, blade, brushes, brush caps and nameplates.

Overall, I am VERY happy with how it turned out. Its like brand new and has yet to leak even a drop of drive lube.

Overall, I am very happy with how the saw turned out and figured everyone here would appreciate this as well.

After years of watching my father neglect this, I’ve decided to see if I can restore it to working condition.

I’m hoping to get some idea of where to start the repairs, or if I should even make the attempt.

While it would be awesome to have my own tilting table saw (without the expensive price), I really don’t want to risk dismemberment by a tool that should been scrapped.

Hopefully, someone here can help me figure out if it’s safe to try repairing or if it should be going out to the curb.

Thanks in advance to anyone who replies!