These were my hopefully lifetime supply of Skil 100 planers.The fire left me with these. .My daily driver is completely toast. One of them the trigger felt good everything turned nice cord was “shortened”. Taped together a test cord VAROOM it worked. The other one is in similar condition but fire may have gotten further in to it…overall in decent shape considering what they went through but probably going to need some help to get em shaping again…
Damn that sucks. I would coat them with some WD40 so they don’t corrode further. Even the worst of them has some parts value.
Even though that one planer works, don’t use it. Wires could be brittle and damaged causing bigger problems later on. Here in NJ, Superstorm Sandy houses that were completely renovated caught on fire due to water intrusion of the wires. You don’t want to go through that again. Get them looked at and fixed.
Wow.
Now there’s a testament to the pre-“built-in obsolescence” days of engineering when things were built to last.
I’d be interested to see the mess such an ordeal would make of one of the modern Hitachi’s.
I’m stoked for you ace; 'hope you can get them all running again without too much trouble in terms of time and money. The bones all seem to be there (even if they’re not quite as pretty as they once were); here’s hoping the electronics and motors came through relatively unscathed/not needing much in the way of repair/restoration.
I agree with Surfifty and mako224’s comments though; if there’s corrosion on the outside, there may well be corrosion on the inside too; so if you want these to still be your lifetime supply of Skil 100’s I think it’d be a good idea to get that deal’t with sooner rather than later, plus having an electrician/electrical engineer to check them all out before putting them back into use again would I think be a very wise idea.
Anybody know of one in his area that could help him out? I know a couple, but they’re on the wrong side of the Pacific to lend a hand.
Glad to see you getting things together again; I noticed from your “50% off fire sale” pic from shortly after the fire that your sense of humour came through unscathed -> there’s life in the old dog yet!! :) 
Good on you ace and keep up the good work.
Cheers!
Also keep in mind that heat plays rampant on metal. Make sure that the aluminum is not warped and that all parts are in line before spending money on repairs.
Can anyone say PeteC? Problem is that he is very busy and may not want or need anything else on his plate. Also (and not saying this would be the case) ; the last time he worked on fire damaged planers Pete was the only one that got burned.
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Work value= about $2000, billed $500, amount paid = $0. Gave back the rebuilt ones + all the spare parts salvaged. Yeah I was the one who really got burned.
Aloha Pete,
Astounding what you were able to to with those fire damaged planers. You are without question, A MIRACLE WORKER ! Talk about coming back from the dead, eh.
PS: I absolutely love your Skil 100 blade sharpening device. It is something EVERY Skil 100 owner/user should have, and use.
Thanks Bill. On the burned ones, most of the damage comes from getting blasted around by the fire hoses. The motors surprising enough can survive very high temp’s. I even made new personalized nameplates for those. Also those roasted knobs can be refinished too. Back in the early 1950’s we designed stuff to survive a nuclear holocaust, the Skil is no exception so no need to take in the shelter at bomb time.
