Worm Drive Saws

[Solomon]

 I have three very old circular saws made by SKILL.   The blades are a bastard size but I have a stack of them.  They're  11 and 5/8  with a dimond arbor.   The saws were used by men chaulking frieght in the Hold of Mearchant ships.  They are worm drive saws.  They would normally cut 8x8 10x10 and 12 x 13 oak chaulking dunnage with them.  Of the three, two look to be in pretty good condition and still in the steel boxes they came in when they were new.  One still has the paper work and book with it.   They are very heavey a look like they have a lot of torc.
I would imagine you could eaisly cut a limb of if you were not holding on to it tightly and paying close attention to what you were doing.
Anybody know anything about theese things?    Would they be usful for timber framing?

[shelbycharger400]

if they were originally used to cut 8x8s I dont see why they couldn't now.    I have a smaller skil on my panel saw (for cutting plywood) , (was a circ saw modified by a company and its on a dewalt wood tree) it uses a round arbor , all aluminum shrouds  I think it had a 6 and 3/4 or so,  but I had just enough clearance to put a 7 1/4 blade on it.  and they weigh a lot!    milwalkee timber circ saws arnt cheap either,  so find a 6x6 or so and let it bite, just hang on so it dosnt bite you.

[Gadrock]

I do no  have a lot of money and am in need a saw like that...should you decide to part with one.
PM me if you think about that/

David G


carry on

[Holmes]

The worm drives were the best saws back in the 60's.  I have used up to 10"  and now have a 71/4" I still use. It is my go to saw, they are heavy. You do need to keep a good hold on them and they will run backwards out of a cut if you bind them up. The blades are easy to square up, they are powerful and they draw some AMPS.. I think you hit the jackpot 8)

[shinnlinger]

My understanding is Skil invented the circular saw/worm drive  for cutting sugar cane in 1918.  It was quickly discovered it could cut wood but the craftsmen of the day thought it was "cheating" to use one (or they were paid by the hour) and they did not become popular until after WWII and the building boom.  I suspect electricity availability probably played a part as well as there are houses around here that didn't have electricity until the 70's.

A good solid saw for sure.  I have a 7-1/4 Makita and 8-1/4 Skil worm drive from my construction days in Washinton/Oregon.  I have had construction friends  refer to them as "west coast saws" and indeed they were the saw of choice when I was building in the PNW where they referred  to sidewinder saws as "leftie" saws and I rarely saw one.

How big a blade can you fit on yours Solomon?  I'm sure the saw can take it and the weight isn't as much of an issue working timbers on sawhorses vs dragging one all over a job site.

[shinnlinger]

from the interweb:
"In the early 1920's, a Frenchman named Edmond Michel developed a rotary cutting implement designed to cut sugar cane stalks in the bayou of Louisiana, after watching laborers struggle to cut through the stalks with machetes. After a few attempts, he came up with an idea utilizing a rotary saw blade powered by the electric motor from a malted milk mixing machine. Little did he know at the time, but his design would be the forerunner of the world's first worm-drive circular saw.

A search for US Patent #1512296 (filed on October 23, 1922 and marked patented two days earlier) reveals that Michel may have had woodworking in mind when he designed the first circular saw. According to the patent records (found through a search of Google Patents), Michel wrote, "When accuracy is not necessary the guide may be readily removed, but when employed it affords a rest immediately in front of the saw, and whenever cutting wood or similar material it will be found very useful in maintaining a uniform depth of cut."
Michel formed the Michel Electric Handsaw Company with Joseph Sullivan, a Minneapolis-based land developer, and together they developed the world's first portable electric handsaw. Two years later, Michel left the company he helped found to pursue other ventures. The company subsequently re-branded as Skilsaw after Sullivan's wife observed that their circular saw required a considerable amount of skill to operate.

Focusing their efforts on construction trades, Skilsaw continued working on variations of the design, and in 1928, they established the Model E, which included a die-cast aluminum motor housing and a worm-drive transmission. This model pushed the fledgling company toward early profitability as word spread of this time-saving device.
Improvements to motor technology as well as a clutch designed to reduce kickback and saw overload made the saw easier and safer to use. In 1950, Skilsaw changed their name to the Skil Corporation, and the company began to branch out into other products. Eventually, the worm drive models gave way to direct drive circular saws such as the Model 77, a saw that was so popular that many craftsmen still use these saws today. Growing up, the first circular saw I ever used was a Skil Model 77 that my dad was given by his father years before. "

[shinnlinger]

This post had me do some research, which I find interesting.  Hope you do as well.

"Sidewinder saw developed

Because the original worm-drive saw was protected by the invention patent, manufacturers started playing around with what is called an in-line motor. This is where the motor is driven to a spur type gear and then to a driving gear that drives the saw blade. In other words, the motor sits at a right angle to the blade. The initial saw that was developed for testing had the motor mounted on the right-hand side. Manufacturers were hoping to keep the blade on the left-hand side (like the worm drive) so the user could actually see the blade and the line of cut, allowing for very intricate cuts by vision.

Unfortunately, the motors at that time were as big as coffee cans, as I was told by Edward Sterba, and were very heavy. When the saw approached the end of a cut, the weight of the saw dropping down and to the right would either split or crack the wood. This style made these saws impossible to handle, so the motor was mounted on the left-hand side. Now during a cut, the weight of the motor sits on the piece of the material that is being cut. This became known as the sidewinder, or top-handle circular saw.

It is my understanding that Arthur N. Emmons invented the circular saw (sidewinder) in 1928. Arthur started with Porter-Cable (a division of Rockwell Mfg. Company) in 1919 and became chief engineer in 1923. At that time Porter-Cable was located in Syracuse, New York.

I've always wondered why the East Coast uses sidewinders and the West Coast uses the worm-drive saw. But as I learned, it was in the locations of the manufacturers and what line the distributors were carrying and not personal preference. The Skilsaw worm-drive saw was manufactured in the Midwest and then brought to the West Coast and the market was established. The sidewinder was developed on the East Coast and a distributor who was handling one line of products also bought the sidewinder because it was being made by the same company they were buying from. This is the way it was in those days. Today, it's not the same, and I use both saws: the sidewinder for finish work and the worm-drive for framing."

[giant splinter]

There have been many custom applications made to SKIL worm drive saws over the years, the most notable ones where made by Nate's Saw Shop in Southern California for the rafter cutters and stackers on the tract homes in the 50's and 60's.
These modifications where made to Skilsaw models that are little known and not produced in large numbers for the construction industry, the Skil specialty line had worm drive saws up to 20" blades that could cut the ridge cuts on all the rafters for a custom home in one pass using a Skil model 127 18 amp worm drive saw. Also Models  #7,#107,#117 where among the models modified for roof cutting during this time.
Here is a link to the shop that changed the way rafters where being cut for tract home developments in the 1950's through the 1970's.

theroofcutter.blogspot.com/2012/05/history-and-tools-of-production-roof_28.html

theroofcutter.com