It's been a few years, time for another Skil resto - Skil 107

[BreeStephany]

It's been a few years since I've done a Skil restoration and happened upon a Skil 107 10" 'orange/black' label worm drive that was reasonably priced.

Having done a few of these restorations, I decided to take a gamble, given the price and 'for parts / repair - untested' listing. Having an original Skil blade on it, I knew it likely didn't see a TON of abuse, so picked it up and was really happy with the results.

The cord is ABSOLUTELY trash and the rubber is degraded by oil and conductor insulation is QUITE hard, the brush caps are destroyed and one of the brass brush lead clips cracked in half, but that is about where the damage stops.

The worm wheel and worm gear are MINT, the switch is good, the base is straight and free of rust, the field and armature are in great shape and free of shorts and the case is in great condition. The original cork gasket on the gear case access is COMPLETELY intact and in great shape, the leather seals are good and all of the bearings are in GREAT shape.

I need to order up a new cord (Skil 95104L), a couple of bottles of 80111 drive lube, order new brush caps from Eurton Electric, get a new Freud 10" blade, figure out a repair for the brush lead clip and make another diamond arbor adapter. This is going to be a gift for a friend, so I want to make them their own jig for modifying future blade arbors to fit the diamond pattern arbor.

Need to clean it up, remove the existing paint, repaint it and reassemble. The only time consuming part of the restoration is going to be restoring the blade guard label and nameplate label. Shouldn't be too tough of a project to tackle.

Going to spend a little time today finishing disassembling it, washing down the parts and looking to see if I have any NOS brush lead clips laying around. I will definitely post pictures as the restoration progresses.

 

[PugetDude]

It's been a few years since I've done a Skil restoration and happened upon a Skil 107 10" 'orange/black' label worm drive that was reasonably priced.

Having done a few of these restorations, I decided to take a gamble, given the price and 'for parts / repair - untested' listing. Having an original Skil blade on it, I knew it likely didn't see a TON of abuse, so picked it up and was really happy with the results.

The cord is ABSOLUTELY trash and the rubber is degraded by oil and conductor insulation is QUITE hard, the brush caps are destroyed and one of the brass brush lead clips cracked in half, but that is about where the damage stops.

The worm wheel and worm gear are MINT, the switch is good, the base is straight and free of rust, the field and armature are in great shape and free of shorts and the case is in great condition. The original cork gasket on the gear case access is COMPLETELY intact and in great shape, the leather seals are good and all of the bearings are in GREAT shape.

I need to order up a new cord (Skil 95104L), a couple of bottles of 80111 drive lube, order new brush caps from Eurton Electric, get a new Freud 10" blade, figure out a repair for the brush lead clip and make another diamond arbor adapter. This is going to be a gift for a friend, so I want to make them their own jig for modifying future blade arbors to fit the diamond pattern arbor.

Need to clean it up, remove the existing paint, repaint it and reassemble. The only time consuming part of the restoration is going to be restoring the blade guard label and nameplate label. Shouldn't be too tough of a project to tackle.

Going to spend a little time today finishing disassembling it, washing down the parts and looking to see if I have any NOS brush lead clips laying around. I will definitely post pictures as the restoration progresses.

Looks like a fun little project.

 

[The Cobbler]

I'm in for the ride, looks like a fun project

 

[BreeStephany]

Well, it only took me 2 years to finally get this project unpacked out of it's box since our big move a year and a half ago to get it back on the bench, but new job, MUCH more reasonable hours (50~55 hours a week vs. 85~95 hours a week), so I had a weekend to finally wash down the stripped but oil soaked parts in mineral spirits and get paint on them.



Got them masked, ready for paint and hung in the garage, then sprayed 2 coats of high-build primer, 2 coats of silver "aluminum" metallic and then a generous coat of 2k ultra high gloss clear and I am pretty happy with how they shine.

The downfall of shooting 2k in my garage vs in a booth is that it isn't temperature controlled, and while the temperature does stay within the cure limits of paint and clear, it's on the lower edge, so I'm finding it takes a good week to get a STRONG, hard, durable cure on the paint, so I am giving them the week to cure before I start reassembly and using that time to source a few parts from Eurton and custom fabricate a new brush holder clamp for the field coil, as one was somewhat repaired at some point in it's lifetime, but that repair failed. I do like the original brush holder field coil clamp design of the earlier version of the Skil wormdrives which used a spring which wrapped the brush holder, rather than the somewhat 'delicate' brass set screw clamps that the newer saws utilized and I think I'm likely going to replace the good clamp and bad clamp both with this design.

I've done my fair share of Skil restorations over the years, but most were less than a week between disassembly and reassembly, so I still had a lot of visual memory of where everything went, but it has been 2 years, so I have a feeling I am going to be leaning a bit into the parts diagram to remember where everything goes when I reassemble. I would say I am about 90% on the reassembly right now, but there are a few bushings that I cannot for the life of me remember where they go.



Next steps are get a few more tubes of Skil 80111 drive lube, a new Skil 95104L replacement cordset, order up a new set of 3/4" x 24TPI brush caps and a new set of 0.250" x 0.750" brushes from Eurton, cut new flat gaskets and start getting it all back together.

One major downfall of having this disassembled for so long is that I am finding how much the phenolic bodies of brush holders have expanded while being stored in a box with a bunch of oil soaked parts and right now they are scary-tight tolerances on fit, vs. just sliding in and out like they did upon disassembly, so I am hoping a few days in the freezer will get them to contract just enough to fit. I do have access to a cryro tank at my new shop, but being phenolic, I know they would likely become too brittle with the extreme shift in temperature, so I am hoping a gentle freeze in the freezer over a few days will get them to shrink just enough, otherwise I will be chucking them in the lathe and taking a tiny bit off the phenolic to get them in. Thankfully, they are set screw set, so any slop after assembly would be removed once the set screws are in place.


The last, and likely most time consuming part of this restoration is going to be the complete restoration of the name plates, which are already in pretty rough shape. I don't want to wrap them with a printed label and would prefer them to look as close as possible to original, so I am considering reaching out to a few local engraving shops to see what reproductions would set me back.

It's been 2 years since I last touched this thread, but I promise that the next progress updates will happen IN 2026, and likely in the next couple of weeks based on my progress in the last day.

 

[BreeStephany]

Made a little more progress today on the 107. Pulled the brush holders out of the freezer and they slipped right in with a little assembly lube.

I fabricated all new gaskets, fixed the broken field clamp by salvaging a spring clip clamp off another field I had laying around, got the saw 90% reassembled and filled it with oil to let the leather seals swell and fully seat before I power it up.

I bought an 10-1/4" blade for it but now realize that it only takes a 10" blade, so have to buy another blade, cut in the diamond on the arbor and install a new cord and then the process of figuring out how I am going to go about restoring the nameplate.

Just wanted to give you all an update that I am actually making progress on this finally! Only took me 2+ years...

 

[Oregon rock crusher]

Good progress on that saw Bree. A couple of years passing since tear down will definitely make reassembly a bit more challenging. I have seen quite a few bigfoot saws but don't remember ever seeing a 107. I'm sure you'll have it working and looking like new again. Ed.

 

[BreeStephany]

Good progress on that saw Bree. A couple of years passing since tear down will definitely make reassembly a bit more challenging. I have seen quite a few bigfoot saws but don't remember ever seeing a 107. I'm sure you'll have it working and looking like new again. Ed.

There was definitely a bit of trial and error and referencing the parts manual to remember where everything went. I have done quite a few of the vintage "Blue Label" saws and many of the 'newer' generation orange label saws and whether it is a 67 or a 127, they are pretty muich the same saw, the size of the parts just increases as the saw gets bigger.

I will say, keeping this saw in pieces in oil for this long had its benefits, in that all the parts were in much better condition, but was also a pain in that it took a LOT more prep for paint to get all of the oil out of the housing to prep it for paint.

The rest of the reassembly is easy, just need to more than likely find someone to make a reproduction set of labels for it.

 

[BreeStephany]

Just got the brushes and new brush caps in today and powered the saw on for the first time and it RUNS and runs smooth.

I cycled it for about 20 minutes and visually inspected the input and output seals and NO leaks! Despite being disassembled for 2+ years the original leather seals are still good!

Excited to be getting reprodction labels from @mattblast soon and will have this one wrapped up!

 

[micromind]

Just got the brushes and new brush caps in today and powered the saw on for the first time and it RUNS and runs smooth.

I cycled it for about 20 minutes and visually inspected the input and output seals and NO leaks! Despite being disassembled for 2+ years the original leather seals are still good!

Excited to be getting reprodction labels from @mattblast soon and will have this one wrapped up!

That saw would very likely frame several hundred houses......try that with a new one......lol.

 

[BreeStephany]

That saw would very likely frame several hundred houses......try that with a new one......lol.

Indeed. The fact that many of the saws I have restored over the years just needed a thorough cleaning, new gaskets, lube and brushes and run like new, despite being 60~80+ years old at this point, is a testament to just how well these saws were made. Built to last LIFETIMES.

 

[The Cobbler]

Built to last LIFETIMES.

unlike todays cordless that seems to be 3 to 5 yrs for a lot of them

 

[BreeStephany]

unlike todays cordless that seems to be 3 to 5 yrs for a lot of them

Modern cordless tools are, in my opinion, much more focused on enhancing ergonomics of the tools to reduce repetitive motion injury by making tools more compact and lighter, are also focused on providing more compact tooling to accomplish work easier in tighter spaces and working conditions, all while trying to meet or exceed the expectations of 'corded tool' power capabilities.

While there are a few companies out there that have accomplished this well, compact semiconductor circuits have their weaknesses, which is heat and moisture, moisture ingress is solved through epoxy potting, but this does not allow for adequate heat disapation, and with the overall compact design, there is not a lot of room for heatsinks and active / passive cooling. These tools do work well when only used within their limits, but the truth is we all want and expect "corded power" abilities, so they are often pushed beyond their abilities repeatedly and fail within a number of years. The issue is that they are heavily engineered to meet precise specifications with weight and size in mind.

Old corded tools were engineered by people, not software, and were often over engineered to ensure that they would meet expectations with margins of error, and while weight and size were concerns, they were not as much of a concern as they are today.

I think a prime example of this is the Skil 127 12" worm drive saw with a true 125VAC 20A AC/DC motor. No brake, just a motor and a gearcase with an aluminum housing. The field alone weighs as much as a Modern Skil Mag77 and the saw with blade and oil weighs in at around 48lbs...

By today's standards, this is an insane amount of weight to lift and guide with 1 hand, at least from an employer and health&safety perspective.

Prioritizing the longevity and health of people over the longevity and health of tooling is not a bad thing, but it does come with a price of compromising tool longevity.

Just my two cents and end of that rant?... promise!

 

[BreeStephany]

Finally finished the complete restoration of this Skil 107 this evening.

A HUGE shout out to @mattblast for the amazing reproduction labels for this saw! They look absolutely amazing and really helped bring the saw together into a finished product.






It definitely came a long way from where it was when I picked it up 2 years ago as a "parts saw - non-functional" because of a broken wire on one of the brush holders.

The labels really were what brought this all together.

Outside of new labels, new gaskets, some heat shrink and solder, a new cord, new brush caps and brushes, a new coat of paint, new blade and new lube, I didnt have to put too much into this saw financially.

Mechanically, it was in great condition. The bearings were solid, the worm gear and worm wheel showed no signs of wear, the field and brush holders were in great condition and it had a working switch.

I will say that perhaps having it disassembled for so long was to its benefit. I have restored quite a lot of these saws and every one I have restored with the original shaft seals in similar condition did leak a very small amount of oil at the input & output shafts. Not a huge amount, just enough it would be visible after a couple of days of storage but would hold lube for YEARS without an issue.

This saw however, not a SINGLE drop. It is tight and clean.

Every one of these I do, I learn a little more to improve upon my previous restoration quality.

I love the look of the blued fill cap, angle adjustment bolt, switch, blade washer, blade bolt and cord strain relief spring, which were how they came from the factory. This is definitely something I want to do on future restorations.

Just talked with another friend that is in love with the quality of these older saws, so looks like I am on the hunt for another 77 of this era.

 

[Oregon rock crusher]

That 107 came out great Bree and the labels really set it off. Nice job. I've got a blue label 77 for parts if you ever need it for one of your saw projects. Seems like the worm was pretty worn when I checked it out so it's just been sitting in a box for several years now. Ed.

 

[BreeStephany]

That 107 came out great Bree and the labels really set it off. Nice job. I've got a blue label 77 for parts if you ever need it for one of your saw projects. Seems like the worm was pretty worn when I checked it out so it's just been sitting in a box for several years now. Ed.

Im always down for spare parts on these saws! I need to find another 77 Blue Label soon for another resto project / gift. Feel free to PM me.