u/BreeStephany

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 Freud 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.

Check out the full resto on GJ!

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.

As a welder and fabricator in the past, I thought I had a pretty good understanding of most metals and the effects of welding and machining on metals, particularly well versed in steel... but was bluing a steel metal part this evening and the experience on one specific piece has me a bit stumped and wanting to learn more...

I use a mixture of concentrated selenious acid, nitric acid and phosphoric acid applied to the surface which in MOST cases almost instantly creates a semi-permanent surface 'corrosion' by converting the top surface of the steel to black iron oxide to act. I then soak in cold water to neutralize the reaction and then immediately soak in conventional oil to give the metal a brilliant black shine that is easily maintained and long lasting.

In the case of the particularly difficult part, I prepped the part by soaking it in trichlorethylene (trichlor-111) overnight to ensure that there was little if any oil left on the surface, allowed the solvent to flash off which it does VERY quickly and then began applying the acid. The face reacted a little slower than usual but uniformly reacted. One side of the part along the surface cut by a hydraulic die and the back in several spots however were EXTREMELY slow to react and others did not react whatsoever, no matter how long I allowed it to soak in solution.

My question is this due to a variance in composition of the metal, perhaps having higher concentrations of chromium, nickel or another resistant alloy when the metal was rolled OR was this due to the stamping process effecting the density of the steel?

I would imagine that it was likely the presence of different alloys resistant to the acid, but I did notice that this occurred on the back of the part and along the die lines most significantly.

For reference, I am unsure of the exact composition of the metal as it is off an OLD 1950's ratchet I am cleaning up, but I did find it interesting none the less. It is higher quality steel given its age and I do know that certain parts (fasteners) of the tool were chromed during manufacturing.

I am wondering if this perhaps all that remains of the layer of copper, nickel and chromium that remain on the tool given its age and likely prolonged exposure to the elements.

Just found it interesting and perhaps discussion worthy.

Thoughts?