Table / Panel saw advice

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altennis

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23 Aug 2011
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sevenoaks, kent
I am looking to upgrade my current Charnwood W650 machine to something a little better. I have found the depth of cut to be fine on the Charnwood, but the stickiness of the fence with the fine adjust on, the non-standard mitre slot and the accuracy of the carriage mean that i want something a little better.

My budget is around 3k and i have a relatively small workshop so i can't have a massive machine so far i am looking at:

Axminster TSCE 12R 305 table saw
Hammer K3 Basic or Winner
Possible also the Axminster PS250.

I mainly work in hardwoods (normally 25-50mm thick) and use the table saw both rip and cross cutting at the moment. Grateful for any thoughts.
 
Have a look at a Sedgwick TA315. Loads on auction sites at the moment and they are a really good Saw. A Blue and white one (latest model - not a repainted machine) will be well within your budget with money to spare. I can’t be sure but the Axminster TSCE looks a lot in my opinion like a Sedgwick made cheaper and to look different......I do wonder if they are made by Sedgwick? The main fence, sliding table appear to be identical to my untrained eye.
 
Thanks for the tip, will have a look. I should have added that I only have single phase, which can restrict second hand purchases...
 
It often seems that 3ph machines sell for a lower price than single phase, and again IMO the price difference is often the cost of converting them!

Two options
1. New motor and change the contractor and overload relays.
2. Inverter that also allows variable speed control
 
deema":dxggzpgh said:
I can’t be sure but the Axminster TSCE looks a lot in my opinion like a Sedgwick made cheaper and to look different......I do wonder if they are made by Sedgwick? The main fence, sliding table appear to be identical to my untrained eye.

Probably their usual thing of getting far eastern knock offs made for them. At one of their own trade shows some years back had a chap on the Jet stand bend my ear about Axminster having near copies made of their machines and then ditching the originals. Not nice but seems to be the way of the world :(
 
3k gets a lot of love 2nd had - just seen a very nice Felder go on ebay for less than that (just). Robland, SCM and Sedgewick jump to mind. Register on the Felder website - they have a 2nd section. Can speak for Robland - solid , Hammer gets good write ups here and SCM have a good rep.

I'm in a similar position - single phase is a bit of a limit but there's good gear to be had. TBH not totally convinced by Axminsters offerings although loads of members have good things to say about their 10" saw.
 
The dust collection is pretty good, i haven't had many other table saws to compare it to. I also use a different crown guard that has a 60mm hose to it so pulls a lot more air off the top of the blade.
 
It may be just the video, but that Saw seemed to be extremely loud. I have at the moment two saws, a Sedgwick LK that runs up to a 16” blade and has a foot print not much bigger than a Startrite TA315 and a SCM Si15F that again takes up to a 16” blade. Both of which you can hardly hear when running with a maximum sized blade 16” or in new money 400mm. The sound of cutting wood drowns out completely any noise the motor / blade make. You certainly don’t need ear defenders either when they are just switched on, in fact the biggest danger is leaving either of them running because they are so quiet and forgetting they are on.

I would have thought that at that noise level it will not be very popular if you have neighbours close by.
 
Dont limit yourself to single phase machines when the same machine can be had for much cheaper.
(as long as its dual voltage, which a good 70 or 80% at least,probably will be)
motor nameplate will have 220 or 240 v stamped for low voltage three phase (delta configuration)
You can get a hundred quid vfd and run this from your household plug.
Its very easily done, plenty here have wired up their startrite 275's and will help

Also you may wish to stick with your 13A plug ?
A VFD is great for this, as you can tune in your soft start to suit your supply.
For instance my pillar drill 1hp (if even that) single phase will dim the lights but my 3HP tablesaw and
3HP bandsaw will start with no sign of voltage drop.

Get yourself a bargain
Good luck
Tom
 
I apologise if you are fully familiar with dual voltage rated 3ph motors, and I add the following as I know there is a lot of confusion about it. I’m deliberately over simplifying it and trying to just focus on the bits that are relevant.

In 3 phase supplies you have three live wires that each have a voltage of 240volts, a neutral and an earth. Each live wire although at 240 volts is operating out of phase with each other. I won’t go into the technical stuff about what this means. However, the practical side of things means that if you put a volt meter across any two of the three live wires you will get a reading of 415V. This is called the line voltage, and is why standard 3ph is stated as having a voltage of 415v.

If you take one of the live wires and check the voltage with the neutral wire using a voltage meter you will see 240V, this is called the phase voltage.

A normal domestic supply to a house in the U.K. is provided with one of the live wires, a neutral and an earth. The only difference between this and an industrial 3ph supply is that you don’t get the other two line wires. To measure the voltage you check the live and neutral and see 240V, hence it’s called 1ph, 240V.

How is this relevant to 3ph motors? Well we now need to consider that not all countries operate with the UK voltage of 240V. In the USA the phase Voltage and hence the line voltage (3ph) is lower. The line voltage is typically 220V. Just over half that of the U.K. rather than make 3ph motors specifically for each countries line voltage, they can be made such that by swapping a couple of links in the connector of a motor they can be made to run at different line voltages with no adverse affect.

A dual voltage motor can be made to run at a line voltage of either 400 or 220V - so it will work in both the U.K. and USA for instance. It requires all three live wires, 3ph, to be connected to run at either of the voltages. It will not work on standard single phase.

An standard inverter takes standard single phase, and converts it to 3ph. It does this by literally chopping up the voltage, changing it slightly and then smoothing it out to create 3 live wires. In doing this, the voltage is reduced in each of the three wires. So, instead of standard U.K. 3ph which has a line voltage of 415V (measured across any two live wires) it actually has a line voltage of c220V or something very close to that in the USA.

To use an inverter is very easy. You need a dual voltage motor. The 3ph motor has to have the links changed so that it’s in the low voltage mode, and then it can be connected to a standard inverter.

A fixed voltage motor that states it will just run on 400V can actually be made into a dual voltage motor. It’s not something that anyone nit familiar with motors can do, but something a motor rewinding company can do for you easily. However, the cost can be similar to buying a new dual voltage 3ph motor for small motors (typically what most of us will come in contact with)
 
It may have been worth mentioning that the phase voltage in the USA is 110v therefore the three phase voltage is 220v, also using the description "line voltage" could be very confusing, I think it would have been clearer to use the description "three phase".

Mike
 
Good points Mike, I use Line voltage as this is the technical term abd differentiates it from the other technical term which is Phase Voltage. The 240 vis 415 does cause a lot of confusion. Equally to convert from phase voltage to a 3ph line voltage you mutiply by the square root of 3 to take account of the phase shift between each live. For 110v phase voltage the line voltage is actually 190V rather than 220V.
 
Having three phase in my house in France at only 20amps/phase did cause all sorts of problems when the water heater was uncontrolled and would switch on during the day when using other high demand items and cause the main EDF switch to trip out, bit of lateral thought I put a timed unit on the water heater so it only came on during the night, this has been very successful during the last six years, but did require carful balancing of the other circuits, especially the all electric kitchen appliances and laundry.

Mike
 
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