I've owned a couple of those portabands but got rid of the last one
years ago. I recently was at an estate sale and picked one up so
cheap I couldn't pass on it.

Coincidentally, yesterday a woman offered me a bunch of angle iron but
said it was welded into stuff too unwieldy to move in my vehicle. I
got to thinking yet again, surely there must be some way to power
this saw from my car. I could get an inverter, but I rather suspect
that the motor on this is a universally wound DC motor. Is there a
way to directly run it from battery power?

GWE

Grant Erwin wrote:

I've owned a couple of those portabands but got rid of the last one
years ago. I recently was at an estate sale and picked one up so
cheap I couldn't pass on it.

Coincidentally, yesterday a woman offered me a bunch of angle iron but
said it was welded into stuff too unwieldy to move in my vehicle. I
got to thinking yet again, surely there must be some way to power
this saw from my car. I could get an inverter, but I rather suspect
that the motor on this is a universally wound DC motor. Is there a
way to directly run it from battery power?

GWE

You'd still need 120V DC -- to get that from your car you'd need an
inverter. The DC inverter would be way more expensive than an AC
inverter because nobody makes 120V DC inverters in massive volumes in China.

You could also consider a generator -- it may be more practical at the
expected current usage of your saw.

--

Tim Wescott
Wescott Design Services
http://www.wescottdesign.com

You *can* get 120vdc (or AC at an odd frequency) from a modified car
alternator, but since you'd need to modify it (replace the regulator
portion) you would need to add a second alternator. There is/was a
company that produced a commercial system similar to this where they
used one or two modified alternators to produce something around 120vac
at fairly high and variable frequency, rectified it to DC and then an
inverter to reform it to stable 60hz power. I seem to recall that their
systems were 5kw and 10kw rated with one or two alternators. I saw their
stuff at NAB back in '98 or so, but can't seem to find it online now, I
think it was called "Road Power". It sounds overly complicated, but you
got better efficiencies by producing the power at a higher voltage and
avoiding the step up.

Pete C.


Tim Wescott wrote:

Grant Erwin wrote:

I've owned a couple of those portabands but got rid of the last one
years ago. I recently was at an estate sale and picked one up so
cheap I couldn't pass on it.

Coincidentally, yesterday a woman offered me a bunch of angle iron but
said it was welded into stuff too unwieldy to move in my vehicle. I
got to thinking yet again, surely there must be some way to power
this saw from my car. I could get an inverter, but I rather suspect
that the motor on this is a universally wound DC motor. Is there a
way to directly run it from battery power?

GWE

You'd still need 120V DC -- to get that from your car you'd need an
inverter. The DC inverter would be way more expensive than an AC
inverter because nobody makes 120V DC inverters in massive volumes in China.

You could also consider a generator -- it may be more practical at the
expected current usage of your saw.

--

Tim Wescott
Wescott Design Services
http://www.wescottdesign.com

Grant Erwin wrote:
I've owned a couple of those portabands but got rid of the last one
years ago. I recently was at an estate sale and picked one up so
cheap I couldn't pass on it.

Coincidentally, yesterday a woman offered me a bunch of angle iron
but
said it was welded into stuff too unwieldy to move in my vehicle. I
got to thinking yet again, surely there must be some way to power
this saw from my car. I could get an inverter, but I rather suspect
that the motor on this is a universally wound DC motor. Is there a
way to directly run it from battery power?

GWE

My current inverter is rated for 800 watts, it's enough to power my
mini-lathe, my small drill press or my 4x6 band saw. It's not enough
to start my Skil wormdrive or the contractor's table saw, both of which
have universal motors. It will run the 1/2" electric drill, not sure
how big a hole it would handle, though. Unless you've got a fairly
large truck, a lot of heavy copper and a source of nearly free
deep-cycle batteries, 120 v. DC isn't really a practical thing. The
chain car parts places have inverters on sale all the time here, the
problem with the higher-output units is the current draw at 12 v. You
have to wire them in directly, you can't just plug the suckers into the
cigarette lighter socket. Some of them draw about 100 amps at rated
output. Once you start thinking about hooking them up to a deep-cycle
battery and the charger for it, you might as well lay out for a
light-duty-cycle gas-fired generator. The cost will be about the same
and the convenience factor will be a lot higher.

Stan

or buy torches...

wrote:
Grant Erwin wrote:

I've owned a couple of those portabands but got rid of the last one
years ago. I recently was at an estate sale and picked one up so
cheap I couldn't pass on it.

Coincidentally, yesterday a woman offered me a bunch of angle iron

but

said it was welded into stuff too unwieldy to move in my vehicle. I
got to thinking yet again, surely there must be some way to power
this saw from my car. I could get an inverter, but I rather suspect
that the motor on this is a universally wound DC motor. Is there a
way to directly run it from battery power?

GWE


My current inverter is rated for 800 watts, it's enough to power my
mini-lathe, my small drill press or my 4x6 band saw. It's not enough
to start my Skil wormdrive or the contractor's table saw, both of which
have universal motors. It will run the 1/2" electric drill, not sure
how big a hole it would handle, though. Unless you've got a fairly
large truck, a lot of heavy copper and a source of nearly free
deep-cycle batteries, 120 v. DC isn't really a practical thing. The
chain car parts places have inverters on sale all the time here, the
problem with the higher-output units is the current draw at 12 v. You
have to wire them in directly, you can't just plug the suckers into the
cigarette lighter socket. Some of them draw about 100 amps at rated
output. Once you start thinking about hooking them up to a deep-cycle
battery and the charger for it, you might as well lay out for a
light-duty-cycle gas-fired generator. The cost will be about the same
and the convenience factor will be a lot higher.

Stan

In article , Grant Erwin
wrote:

I've owned a couple of those portabands but got rid of the last one
years ago. I recently was at an estate sale and picked one up so
cheap I couldn't pass on it.

Coincidentally, yesterday a woman offered me a bunch of angle iron but
said it was welded into stuff too unwieldy to move in my vehicle. I
got to thinking yet again, surely there must be some way to power
this saw from my car. I could get an inverter, but I rather suspect
that the motor on this is a universally wound DC motor. Is there a
way to directly run it from battery power?

GWE

Small 1Kwatt generators show up at pawnshops all the time for maybe
$200.
That is easily big enough to power your saw.

Why not just use a cutting torch?

Go for the inverter. I have one and it runs almost anything I ever need to
plug into it. Just make sure the cables driving the inverter are big
enough.

--

Roger Shoaf

About the time I had mastered getting the toothpaste back in the tube, then
they come up with this striped stuff.


"Grant Erwin" wrote in message
...
I've owned a couple of those portabands but got rid of the last one
years ago. I recently was at an estate sale and picked one up so
cheap I couldn't pass on it.

Coincidentally, yesterday a woman offered me a bunch of angle iron but
said it was welded into stuff too unwieldy to move in my vehicle. I
got to thinking yet again, surely there must be some way to power
this saw from my car. I could get an inverter, but I rather suspect
that the motor on this is a universally wound DC motor. Is there a
way to directly run it from battery power?

GWE