Worm drive saws with the blade on the right-hand side of the motor seem to be pretty rare outside the Porter Cable trim saw. You have to go back pretty far to before the Skil 77 iteration became the de-facto design to find them. Recently stumbled across one called the "Mall Saw Model 70" (which is itself a refinement of a Wappat design evidently). Here it is compared to the modern Skil 77:
Saw is currently disassembled for refurbishment; here's a picture off google search of an assembled one:
Haven't cut anything yet but just from handling it, definitely among the better balanced 7-1/4" blade saws I've come across. Sidewinders have the weight off to the side and in my experience are less robust. The Skil 77 has the weight balanced but the blade on the left means the saw wants to roll to the right when the cut lumber drops away, and the handle is behind the motor/weight so need a good amount of wrist strength to wield it one handed. Obviously not deal breakers as the saw has been an industry standard for decades... these are things that just bug me.
This Mall saw has the weight centered, has the handle over the motor, won't want to roll when the cut lumber drops down, and as a bonus I can see the front of the line of cut from the left hand side since there's not a giant motor in the way like with a side winder. The weight is 15.5lb so heavy by modern standards but not much more than a modern Skil 77.
Mechanically this thing is either equal to or superior to a Skil of it's era. Worm wheel has barely any wear, the worm itself has five starts (most I've ever seen on a worm drive saw) resulting in a modern feeling 4800 RPM.
Excited to try it out once it's rebuilt. Only issue is it uses a 13/16" square arbor hole instead of the standard 13/16" diamond... If I like the saw enough to actually use it regularly will need to figure out a solution to that.
Saw is currently disassembled for refurbishment; here's a picture off google search of an assembled one:
Haven't cut anything yet but just from handling it, definitely among the better balanced 7-1/4" blade saws I've come across. Sidewinders have the weight off to the side and in my experience are less robust. The Skil 77 has the weight balanced but the blade on the left means the saw wants to roll to the right when the cut lumber drops away, and the handle is behind the motor/weight so need a good amount of wrist strength to wield it one handed. Obviously not deal breakers as the saw has been an industry standard for decades... these are things that just bug me.
This Mall saw has the weight centered, has the handle over the motor, won't want to roll when the cut lumber drops down, and as a bonus I can see the front of the line of cut from the left hand side since there's not a giant motor in the way like with a side winder. The weight is 15.5lb so heavy by modern standards but not much more than a modern Skil 77.
Mechanically this thing is either equal to or superior to a Skil of it's era. Worm wheel has barely any wear, the worm itself has five starts (most I've ever seen on a worm drive saw) resulting in a modern feeling 4800 RPM.
Excited to try it out once it's rebuilt. Only issue is it uses a 13/16" square arbor hole instead of the standard 13/16" diamond... If I like the saw enough to actually use it regularly will need to figure out a solution to that.
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