This 1950 Skil 525 chaindriven belt sander was running a slow, probably due to the hardened grease around the gears. These are also known as "locomotive" sanders.

I completely tore it down except for the area where the wormdrive is. I didn't want to risk breaking anything trying to access that area. I ended up just adding new grease to the wormdrive gears. Power cord should probably be replaced, but I wanted to keep all the parts original as this tool is going to AvE.

The sander takes a 2 1/4" belt, which is not very common currently.

The sander works fine now and it is back to near original condition.

Interestingly, this sander was ~$65 in 1950, which would make the cost around $650 currently!

  / handtoolrescue