r/toolrestorations

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.

Was cleaning up an OLD, well used and abused NB40 1/2" drive ratchet whose previous life was served more as a hammer than a ratchet and left out to the elements.

I found it covered in rust, but the internals were free of rust. It was far too pitted and deeply scratched / dented on the exterior for a polishing but I already had it and didnt want to just clean and lube and throw it back to work, I wanted to give it something more to make it look better than I found it.

I gave it a bath in boiling water and dawn to draw out the general grime and oils, brushed off the significant buildup of rust and then let it soak in evaporust for about a day. I ran it on the wire wheel and buffer to smooth the surface as much as possible.

It had seen so much abuse from a previous owner likely using it as a hammer that the front face cover was no longer flat and significantly dimpled. I put it in the press between 2 pieces of flat tool steel and pressed it until it was true and flat.

I knew I was going to blue the direction lever and gear drive, but after letting it sit on the bench a few days, I decided why not blue the entire ratchet. The bluing tends to detract attention from the imperfections.

I mixed up some concentrated selenious acid, nitric acid and phosphoric acid and brushed the entire surface with the solution, applying 2 coat, letting it dwell in solution for about 2 minutes and then put it in a pan of water to neutralize the solution. I dried the parts, reapplied the acid solution again to give it a deeper, more even black oxide finish, then again neutralized the parts and soaked them in conventional oil.

I replaced the anvil detent ball and spring, replaced the selector switch detent ball and spring and then reassembled the pieces.

It was a late night reassembly when I remember that the center face screw was not the factory flush screw, but just wanted to get it back together. I am going to replace the center face screw with the correct black oxide screw on Monday and then its going into the drawer, its a 26 tooth ratchet, so it has some slop and backdrop, but it positively engages in both directions and locks TIGHT with no slop.

Is it an accurate restoration? Obviously not, but it looks cool and will definitely take some abuse for years to come.

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!