Woodworkers Here? Thoughts on Table Saws? 110/220/3PH ?

[basstracker89]

Most of what I've used are portable 110V, 15amp tools. I'm highly skilled with those. For a shop, I'd recommend a 220V saw. It just depends on how much you're going to use it. I have a old Craftsman 220V radial arm saw. Super smooth and heavy duty. My Father in Law had a older one that was from the 60s, I think. It lasted 30-40yrs

 

[The Old Jaybird]

my carpenter son swears by Bosch table saws, very smooth operation, and quality.

 

[jaf1]

I only have jobsite saws, but I love Dewalts rack and pinion fence.

 

[Joshua223]

The cheap 3-1 static converters, unless they're rotary converters will fry a 3 phase motor pretty quick.

Grizzly makes a more expensive one that you can run at lower HP, or intermittently at higher HP. Would that prevent burning up the engine?
If going cheaper, rotary is the way to go?

 

[4ssss]

Grizzly makes a more expensive one that you can run at lower HP, or intermittently at higher HP. Would that prevent burning up the engine?
If going cheaper, rotary is the way to go?

I'd go with a VFD. All a rotary converter is is a 3ph motor that has a capacitor on it to start it and put juice thru the 3rd hot leg. A 3ph motor with single ph running to it will start and hum, and if you spin the motor shaft to start it, it will run. The capacitor juices it to turn over until it runs on its own. All you're going to do is switch phase, and you can get VFD's pretty cheap. I bought new and then I found a co. that sells them used for a 1/4 of the price, about 100 bucks at the time. If you buy a good co's VFD, like I said, after putting power to the VFD, they have people that can program it for you over the phone. It's a simple pushing and entering values into the VFD, and the owners manual has them all listed what you can do with it, but I found it easier just to let them do it on the phone while I enter the values. If you look at the pics, the Bridgeport VFD I use just for on/off and speed control, but the lathe I have is wired and programmed to the original switch on the lathe, and I still use it for speed control, as you can see with the blue tach I added on top. One pic is 523rpm and the other is 235. Note that 3 phase motors run on 60hz, and by dropping the hz is how you drop the rpms of the motor, and the slower they run, the hotter they run. (see the tach, and look at the red value on the VFD, one is 60.0, and the other is 26.0) With a table saw you won't need to control the rpm, so you won't need to change the hz. I haven't seen the 3ph table saw you looked at, but I'll guess it's a HD commercial machine, and probably worth getting that and mounting the VFD.

 

[Boogerhook]

I’m a fan of the Sawstop stuff. Kinda standard in our industry lately. You can manually turn the brake function off if needed for P.T. etc. Super smooth saws.

 

[Joshua223]

Hey 4ssss . I recently found a JET Contractor Saw at a price I couldn't pass on. Now I just need to get a dust collection system set up so I can actually run this stuff indoors.

 

[4ssss]

Nice heavy duty machine. You’re going to enjoy it