Ping Wayne Cook - 16" abrasive chop saw blades?

I recall Wayne recently posting he had a monster 16" chop saw, worked head arms and legs better than the 14" ones that are so common these days. Well, today coincidentally a 16" cutoff saw found its way to me. It's a real beast, 7½ hp 3 phase motor, 3 belts. It has been dropped and has lots of cosmetic damage but nothing major appears to be hurt. It isn't running, but the seller was told it ran for a long long time after the damage happened. I got it real cheap. I'm curious how much Wayne pays for 16" abrasive blades and where he gets them.

In the meantime I'm going to be looking for a 5hp single phase motor to replace the 7½hp 3 phase motor that's on it, if anyone anything remotely like local has one please let me know. I'm hoping 5hp is "enough" power - Wayne's saw has a 3hp motor on it so maybe 5hp will be OK.

Grant Erwin Kirkland, Washington do NOT 'reply-to' .. to email me go here:

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Reply to
Grant Erwin
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Cheap 5 hp single phase motors are hard to find. I once bought one for $12, it had bad bearings. Replaced bearings, sold it for $172. They are highly sought after and are expensive. Do not be afraid to buy one needing a little bit of repair.

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Reply to
Ignoramus5455

Tell me about it, sigh. I bought one for my air compressor, wanted to convert it from 3 phase 440V to single phase 220V. I ended up buying it new from Leeson, nice motor, but hoo boy about $250 ouch.

GWE

Reply to
Grant Erwin

Yep... The price stings... Big time in fact...

I think that now you have a great excuse for making a rotary phase converter. The whole thing will likely cost you much less than a 5 HP single phase motor. And you would be able to run a lot of cheap 3 phase tools.

If you find a used 3 phase TEFC motor, you can even store it outside in some enclosure (made of junk 2x4 cutoffs, say), and run a cable to it from inside your shop, so that there is less noise. That would be a almost perfect solution.

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Reply to
Ignoramus5455

Sorry Grant. By "you" I meant Dave.

i

Reply to
Ignoramus5455

To tell you the truth I've not bought any 16" blades for mine. I priced some years ago just after building it and about croaked from the price. The reason I have some now is because somebody came in wanting some pipe sawed on my bandsaw. When he say my chop saw he stated he had some blades that would work. The next time he came in for some more sawing he brought me about 5 16" Norton blades. Needless to say I was more than happy to saw his pipe in my bandsaw for the trade. :-)

Hmm. Well mine is a 3 HP 3 phase motor which has better torque than single phase in my experience (I do occasionally wish for more but that was all I had to put on there at the time). Before that I tried a

5HP cheap compressor motor without luck. Then for years I ran it on a huge 2HP farm duty TEFC motor that came off a old auger. That was ok but lacked power for heavy stuff even using the thin 14" chop saw blades used by the normal chop saws.

I did make a abrasive splitting saw for splitting 1/2" x 1" stock the hard way. The reason for this is to make one piece spurs. A local bit and spur maker paid me to make it. I made one for him years ago which didn't work (I told him that the 2/3HP C faced well motor wouldn't be strong enough but he wouldn't listen). The second one I made we used a large frame 5HP farm duty TEFC motor. I had to do some adjusting of blade speed with the belts in order for it to get enough torque to cut through the 1" of steel reliably. He did learn that he had to use a high quality blade. He managed to rip the center out of a cheap one.

I guess what I'm saying is be careful what kind of 5HP single phase motor you get. Just looking at it will tell you a lot. It will need to large and heavy before it'll make you happy when running the saw.

Wayne Cook Shamrock, TX

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Reply to
Wayne Cook

Thanks, Wayne. I see a few of those 16"ers on ebay, maybe I'll get lucky. I found my saw online:

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mine doesn't say Everett, it says Emerson. It's a dead clone, though. I figure the companies merged way back when.

Anyway, now I'm thinking maybe I should try to actually run it with its 7.5hp motor. I can almost certainly start it using my phase converter (I've started lots of 7½s and even a couple of 10s) but running it loaded down might be another story. I may have to just use it lightly and plan to beef up the phase converter. I'll know more when I get it in the shop and start working on it.

Grant

Reply to
Grant Erwin

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I looked last night just to see what they cost and no they've not gone down in price. I just went and got one of my wheels. It's a Norton Railcut A48 reinforced wheel like these but finer grit.

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?PMAKA=00554717&PMCTLG=00 Looking at those prices gives sticker shock for sure. To be fair these do last much longer than the cheap 14" wheels. As a guess I'd say that it's pretty easy to get 4 times the life possibly more.

Looks like your saw is similar to the one owned by another welding shop in town. Some differences mainly the fact that the guard is fixed and goes all the way around the blade and the base is fully enclosed but overall similar operation. They use there's pretty much as the only saw in the shop. They do have a bandsaw but the help there ruins blades to fast so the owner has just stuck it in the corner.

Good luck. I notice they rate it for 2" solid on the web site. I doubt that you'll manage to get that big without upgrading your phase converter but I may be wrong. I do manage to cut 1 3/4" axle shafts with my 3HP motor (but I do have to feather it a little). However for thinner stuff as long as it starts ok I'm sure you'll be amazed at how well it does compared to a standard 14" saw. One inch square tube will be childs play to it. The big thing here is the starting since you'll be starting it a lot.

Wayne Cook Shamrock, TX

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Reply to
Wayne Cook

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Yup, I ordered 3 blades for $15.50 including shipping from the ebay seller offering "Dura-Kut" blades, I contacted him offline, non-ebay deal (yes, he takes paypal). Enco sells blades for under $5 each and of course if you spend $50 (I can never think of anything else I need from them, sadly) shipping is free.

Thanks for the advice. Should know more in a day or so.

GWE

Reply to
Grant Erwin

Sounds good. Ok I just looked them up. They're 5/32" wide wheels so you'll loose a little more in kerf and need a little more power. Let me know how they hold up.

I might try one of the Enco wheels after I run out of mine but my experience is they probably won't last as long as the Nortons which I have.

You're welcome. Let me know how it comes out.

Wayne Cook Shamrock, TX

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Reply to
Wayne Cook

Coming this way anytime soon? I think....think I have 3 new 16" blades

Gunner

"Pax Americana is a philosophy. Hardly an empire. Making sure other people play nice and dont kill each other (and us) off in job lots is hardly empire building, particularly when you give them self determination under "play nice" rules.

Think of it as having your older brother knock the shit out of you for torturing the cat." Gunner

Reply to
Gunner Asch

Hi Grant,

You could always hook up an old gasoline (or better yet propane) engine to it. It isn't too hard to find 5-10 hp engines at a decent price. It really depends on how often you would be using it. If you used it a lot this would soon become a pain...

How about a nice quiet Honda or Kawasaki engine set up to run on propane and a jack-shaft running through your shop. Hook up all of your big loads to it via flat belts and just nudge them on/off as needed. Just like in the old days .

Reply to
Leon Fisk

That would be an interesting take, it would make it very portable too, could easily use it in the parking lot of a steel supplier for example. I have found that I can start it OK, and am planning to try to use the 7.5hp motor for now.

GWE

Reply to
Grant Erwin

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