Here is a litttle hstory story I wrote about Skilplaners 10 years ago or so. And a few different owner manuals Make what you want of it, it may not be completely accurate.
https://swaylocks7stage.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/History_0.doc
Thanks Mitch, the 5/82 manual shows the Type 5 cutterhead which pinpoints its introduction which is super cool.
Entered it in the database Mike. Thanks
Type 4’s are plain old Type 4 , E, and H
Thanks Mitch. A wealth of Skil knowledge between you, Pete and Gene.
Picture that Skil in Flourescent Orange faded to Pink. I traded a Stairbuilder/Carpenter a brand new Stewart Longboard for that Skil sometime in the 90’s. The only thing I had used before that was a Clark Hitachi that I bought from Fiberglass Hawaii when they were in SB and a Makita I got from Home Depot years before. John Mel told me how to disable the clicker with a screwdriver. Later Ghettorat clued me and Pete about removing the clicker and replacing it with a washer. I cut the base off wit a Sawzall myself. I had several offers to buy that Skil before I finally let it go to Mike. Lowel
Here are two out of my three. The one not pictured is a 5 amp type 3. The Type 5 pictured originally had the clamp style cutter head but was missing the clamps. Thanks to a member here I was able to come up with a regular cutter head. Both of the ones pictured were found at estate auctions and the third was found at a yard sale. The Type 4 pictured was like new when I got it and still has the original stickers on it. The Type 5 pictured had seen plenty of use by a carpenter. The one not pictured is in rough condition…interestingly it had been left sitting flat on a metal shelf and the bed and shoe had interacted with the steel leaving both quite pitted.
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Hi Ding. I feel very fortunate to own it, Lowel. Thank you. That old skil is loved and is used to shape all my boards. Well, I don’t use it on eps. Mike
Hi Pete. PMing you now. Thank you for your very generous offer. Bill has offered to show me around the skil so to speak hopefully in June when I’m off for the summer. Sways is an awesome place full of generous people. Mike
Thanks Mako, I entered those in the database HERE. Your Type 4 landed between Bob The Greek Bolen’s and Lance Carson’s. Lance bought his new in the spring of '76 which is a pretty good landmark for when yours was first purchaced. I believed all the type 5s were built in 1983 and sold fo several years after.
The price of the Type 5 in the Jan.1984 catalog is $475 retail. The price spike might explain why some planers manufactured in1983 were still in stock into the late 80’s
Heres the full listing full listing in the '84 catalog. It’s the only time a “Type” was mentioned in a catalog.
Glad you got that screw set from Pete. Not a necessary option, but nice to use only one screwdriver bit when you work on them. Although that little screw in the bottom is slotted. So I guess there’s no getting out of two bits. Looks better though. Glad you’ve Enjoyed it. I think I’ll get some pic of mine today. I have the two 7.5 Type 4 I use and two that Pete redid for me that I have for sale. A “No” type and a Type 4. Pretty hard these days to get a deal on a Skil. Even on EBay they are going for $500–$600 for a crap shoot. I say crap shoot because you don’t know what you’re getting…
Here’s the 7.5 I use the most. Probably the only one out of all the ones I’ve owned that had ever seen a surfboard. Pete said it had Balsa dust in it. Came from Arizona.
Could you shoot me a closeup of the badge Lowell?
Here is the other 7.5 I use a lot. It used to be my back up until I had Pete put the grit barrel on it. Now I skin both sides with blades and finish with the barrel. Both are 7.5 Type 4 no letter. I suppose I should get a magnifying glass and some good lighting and copy the serial #’s.
With my old eyes Gene the serial #’s are a little hard to see . I’m going to look at them in better light with a magnifying glass. I’ll write them down. Took those pics with my iPhone in my dimly lit shaping bay and couldn’t see them that well until I brought them up on my IPad. I went back and checked dates. The 5.5 would be the oldest.
My bad they do have letters. Looks like E, F and A on the last three
Actually when I enlarge the photo they are pretty easily read. What do you think?