Systainer's great-great grandfather?

[smorgasbord]

Cleaning up the shop today in preparation for my next project and ended up moving this to a new location:
[attachimg=1]

Here's what it looks like inside:
[attachimg=2]

This is actually the first power tool I ever owned. My dad bought it for me because I wanted to build furniture for my room. I was about 11 years old.
[attachimg=3]

Today a ¼" rounderover lives on semi-permanently. I may swap it for a small chamfer bit instead since that seems to fit more with my current design aesthetic.

The nameplate is kind of a crack-up. It's labeled as a "commercial duty router" but only 1/2HP. Today tools have the manufacturer's web site, but back in the late 1960's (oops, now you know how old I must be) it says "For Service see 'Tools, Electric' in Yellow Pages"
[attachimg=4]

I bet my son doesn't even know what "Yellow Pages" are.

This router has a 3-prong plug because this was in the days was "double insulated" was a new-fangled thing. It's a strong running router with a decent height adjustment system (big ring helps with granularity), but unfortunately the collet is simply machined into the motor shaft, so when it wears out, you're out of luck.

 

[CeeJay]

Very cool.

Makita still sell a ‘big ring adjustment’ router in the 3601. Must be derived from this design I guess.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Bob D.]

Back then I believe Skil was owned by Emerson Electric.

I know they were in the early 80s. I have a Skil cordless screwdriver
from ~1983/84 and the manual says division of Emerson Electric on it.

 

[Crazyraceguy]

The big "production" shop Dewalt routers still have that "big ring" set-up too and that horrible thumb-screw to tighten it up.

That "1/2 horsepower" rating is a bit of a trick though. It is arguably more honest than today's ratings, but not as weak as it sounds.
From what I can see on the tag, it looks like 4.7 amps, which would be 564 watts. That's a fraction over 3/4 HP.

In comparison, the Bosch Colt is sold as 1HP, but draws only 5.6 amps, 672 watts, which is only .9 HP

Seems like in the old days, things were underrated and now everything is overrated?

Shop vacs and air compressors seem to be the worst. How many shop vacs have you seen that say something silly like 6.5 HP or more? Impossible, even with a dedicated circuit of 20 amps, which a lot of guys just don't have, that's still only 2400 watts/ 3.2 HP and that is best-case.

The built-in collet is a problem though. I have an old Craftsman laminate trimmer with a collet like that. I keep it at home and rarely use it, but can't seem to get rid of it either? The other problem with this style collet is that they are not self-extracting. You usually have to tap on the nut, after loosening, to get the bit free from it, not ideal.