On Fri, 18 Nov 2005 22:47:26 -0700, "mywebaccts (at) PLUGcomcast.net"
"mywebaccts (at) PLUGcomcast.net" wrote:

Okay, a friend of mine has been admonishing me not to buy a 1 1/2 HP
tablesaw. He says that a minimum of 3 HP is warranted for any decent
tablesaw.

Reasonable enough.

It's a question of torque as well. A brush (universal) motor has higher
starting torque than an induction motor. So a satisfactory experience
with a cheap 1 1/2 hp tablesaw does _not_ mean that a better cabinet saw
with an induction motor would be equally "capable" with the same power.

I wouldn't walk away from a good 2hp saw to a bad 3hp saw. But if I were
buying, I'd specify the biggest motor that my wiring could easily cope
with. My own saw is an ancient 3 phase brute, converted by the previous
owner to an undersized (1hp ?) single phase motor. I upgraded it to a
3hp motor myself and regarded this as money _very_ well spent. It's much
safer to use now - I feed it aq deep rip in sticky resinous timber and
it just gets on with it, no argument. That's a lot better than a saw
that sticks and bogs down, then works free and speeds up again.