Hi my friend,

These craftsmen have given you a whole lot of good advice..

You have a choice, to buy the right power supply and cables to start
with, or to constantly be buying new saws, drills etc.

The key is to have a generator that will provide at least twice the
largest draw in watts or amps that you will ever expect to use. The
reason is that the 15 amp chop saw that you expect to buy, will use very
much more than 15 amps on start up, up to 3 times that much amperage
on start. The surge rating.

While it is true that that kind of current draw will only be momentary,
it still is enough, that when you are using using a power source that is
not powerful enough, that you will over heat the motor on startup, so
every time that you start the motor, you will be cooking the winding,
and you can only do that just so many times before it fails.

The formulas given already are close enough to put you into the ball
park, but they are for DC current. Those AC current formulas are a bit
different, and I know that you do not want to get into those formulas
that gets you into phase angles etc.

So, take the advice of all these fine craftsmen.

1. Buy the biggest generator that you can get, even if you have to haul
it in a trailer, or tie it on top of your car.
2. Buy the heaviest gage extension cords that you can get your hands on.
That way when you have to extend out 200 feet from the generator that
you will not burn up your saw the first time that you use it.
3. Never use a 100 ft cord when a 25 foot, or 50 foot, cord will do the
job. you can always use 2, 50 foot cords to reach 100 feet, a 25 foot
and a 50 foot cord to reach 75 feet, but a 100 foot cord when used at 25
feet is still 100 feet, with the same resulting voltage drop.
4. Do not ever go below the manufacture's recomendations for size and
length of extension cords.

Take it from those of us who have learned the hard way by breaking one
or more of these rules, and thus burning up our very expensive tools.
Your investment now in the right power equipment will save you $$$$$ in
the future.

Zap

wrote:
Hi everyone,

At the moment, I'm doing side jobs that require the use of a drill and
a chop saw. I recently purchased an 8 amp Milwaukee 1/2 " magnum drill
and I also bought some a couple of 100 feet worth of extension chords
rated at 13 amp. This is adequate for the drilling I have to do
through plywood and 2X4 boards on the forms set up to hold concrete on
home slabs. The reason why I drill through the forms is to install the
post tension cables.

I'm also looking to acquire a 15 amp Milwaukee chop saw for cutting the
rebar pieces that will serve as concrete reinforcement. But what I
need to get first is a generator, because in a few places where I've
been sent to do jobs, the electricians haven't set the poles up and I
have nothing to plug into. I have to end up borrowing someone else's
generator but I need to get one of my own.

I'm looking to get the smallest generator possible because I have space
limitations in my car. I was looking at the Coleman Pulse that has a
maximum of 1850 watts (surge) but I'm not sure if that's enough. I
guess it may be enough for the drill, but it probably won't be enough
for either a circular saw or the chop saw. What would be the minimum
wattage size of a generator to run something like a 15 amp Milwaukee
chop saw or circular saw? I only play on running one thing at a time
from the generator; I won't be running multiple tools simultaneously
off the current.

Since I was planning or intending to pick up the 15 amp chop saw, I was
wondering if the fact that the extension cords I have are rated at 13
amps or lower could present a problem? What I did today was pick up a
100 foot 15 amp extension cord so it matches the amperage on the chop
saw. It was really expensive...at least over $60. Would it be a
problem, from a safety perspective, if I used the 13 amp extension
cords on the 15 amp chow saw?

thanks