I’m pretty new to the shaping world and picked it up about a year ago. I was lucky enough to have a dear friend permanently loan me their Skil 100 planer to use, which I more than willingly accepted. The planer was in rough shape when I got it, and since I first got it, the bearings went from marginally okay to being in pretty rough shape, and so I bit the bullet and decided to tear it down and start working on doing a rebuild.
Mechanically, aside from the bearings being bad, its in pretty decent shape and from looking at it thus far, isn’t in nearly as bad of shape as I originally thought, however, with it litterally being torn down to individual pieces at this point, I figured I would take it in to get blasted and get a nice fresh coat of powder applied, however, I have yet to figure out how to remove the brush holders and am afraid of breaking the insulators if I try to remove them incorrectly, and more so, afraid what the heat of a powder oven may do to them, shall they not be removed.
Insight on removing the brush holders, preferably intact, would be greatly appreciated.
I’m definitely excited to start shaping again once I get it all put back together, and more so, excited to be using an essentially “new” tool.
STOP ! ! ! DON'T DO ANYTHING ELSE TO IT ! I've been using a Skil 100 since 1958, own two of them, and really know my way around the tool. That said, I have Pete Casica of Casica Engineering Do ANY serious work on my Skil's. Do yourself a favor (and the tool) and have Pete do the rebuild for you. He post here as PeteC, and is a pleasure to work with. A real gentleman. Are you located in the Southern California area?
It’s a real trick to get those insulators out without cracking the motor housing, I use a jig in a press and careful heating. They also need to be correctly oriented for the brushes when installed, check them before you try and remove. There are several different types of these brush holders that Skil used, and are identified by the type of brush cap. The correct one has the big brush cap (sometimes orange) with brass inside. This one uses the standard Skil brush same as the saws and other tools. Brushes for the other types of holders are becoming increasing hard to find, and I’ve already had to modify similar ones to fit. If you want an overhaul and replacement of the holders, please PM me.
