This old drill...

For as long as I can remember, this drill has been tucked away up in the rafters of my dads garage. From time to time I'd ask about it and he'd tell me that my grandfather brought it home from the war. They're both (as well as myself) 'tool guys' but I've never seen it used. In fact, it's been up there for at least 35 years. I finally pulled it down so I could get a better look at it.

It's a Skilsaw. I figured it would be some odd brand I'd never heard of that went out of businesses before I was born. I plugged it in and pulled the trigger. It still works. It smells like burning and it's clear the grease is dried up, but it spins. I sent the pictures over to Skil Tools to ask the what they know about it.

They told me they'd look into it and a few days later they sent me a picture of the catalog it was in, dated 1949. That means it was likely manufactured just before the Korean War.

I'll probably take it apart and see if I can clean it up, check the brushes, add some grease and see about polishing up the case (and maybe adding a grounded cord). On the other hand, I've considered sending it to AVE, so he can do a BOLTR and drool over it for a while...or tell me it's a garbage drill with cheap bearings and shitty windings.

Fuck it, this actually looks like it could be fun to clean up. I'll have to go grab it later today and start tearing it apart.

Update: She's on the healing bench https://i.imgur.com/ZX2cTtH.jpg
A new power cord is needed for sure, but that's to be expected https://i.imgur.com/glnNjWF.jpg. It's not the cracking that bothers me as much as how brittle it all is.
And, it still runs much better than thought it did. The trigger is very sticky, but it at least appears to be usable. https://i.imgur.com/XgiWBW4.mp4
Hopefully it'll still be usable when I put it back together.