Saw duty motor for planer?

[John Hiner]

Howdy,

I have an 18" Powermatic planer model 180 that I bought at an auction several years ago. It came with a 7.5 hp three phase motor. I do not have three phase power and would like to get a single phase motor. I have found a "Saw Duty" Baldor 5 hp motor. Would that work with this machine?

Thanks,

John Hiner

[Matt Day]

Depending on frame mounting in your planer, it should work I would think but I'll defer to the other experts on here.
Have you looked into phase converters instead of replacing the motor?

[Steve Juhasz]

Motors are not rated "saw duty" or "planer duty". You need to verify the RPM's required on your planer motor, and you need to verify motor frame, ie, mounting bolt locations. If those two things work, go ahead and get the 5 HP Baldor.

[Larry Browning]

Hello John,
I am a software developer at Baldor. I am not an engineer, but I have easy access to them. I just now spoke to one of those guys here. I read him you question, and here is his answer. (para phrased) We sometimes stamp "saw duty" on the HP line of the nameplate. This means that the motor will produce the rated HP for short periods of time and as it runs longer, the power will fall off a bit. It also is designed so that it will handle multiple start and stop cycles much better than a continuous duty motor. This is pretty much how you would run a saw. A planner on the other hand is normally run for longer periods of time with fewer start and stop cycles. He was actually more concerned about the 5HP vs 7.5HP than the saw duty. He thought the lesser HP would not be enough to handle that large capacity cutter head. His recommendation was to consider a rotary phase converter instead of changing out the motor. He also said if you would post the actual Spec Number from the nameplate, we could look up all the performance data and tell you for sure if it would work for your application.

[David Kumm]

I agree that an RPC and the 7.5 motor is the best choice. However, the 180 did come with 5 hp as did most other 18" planers. Granted, running both the head and the rollers is a trade off, the straight blade head required less power than if you converted it to a Byrd. Then I would go 7.5 for sure. The 5 hp used with that planer was a heavy frame stout motor so my concern in the changeover is that you are not only swapping for less hp but likely the motor is of lower quality than what was orignally spec'd as well. You don't want the power falling below a full 5 hp during use. Dave

[John Hiner]

Thank you for the replies. The Spec Number on the motor name plate is 36H359W568G1. I will try to insert a jpg of the name plate. I will look into the rotary phase converters, but would rather go with a single phase motor.250168

[Larry Browning]

I passed the spec number on to engineering. I can tell you that the motor was manufactured right here in Fort Smith in March of 2005 and that it is still an active motor, meaning we are still selling it. That probably doesn't answer any of your question about it, but that's what I know about it. I will let you know what engineering says about it after they do a little research.
BTW: Is this a new or used motor?

[Larry Browning]

John,
Here is the response I got from my guy in engineering:
"It might work. Starting would be what I would be concerned with. A saw duty LC motor has less starting torque than an ordinary Design B 3 phase motor would which will extend the time to bring the machine up to speed. http://www.redmond-machinery.com/powermatic_180.htm is a 18 inch planer that lists possible motors as 7.5 Hp for heavy duty work and a 5 hp as light to medium.

Might work, maybe."

[Stephen Cherry]

Are you running a lumber yard, or occasionally planing a few boards for hobby use? If it's the latter, I would just have at it without worries. Maybe check the motor a few times and see if it's getting too hot.

Another option would be static phase converter.

And, don't forget, belt slip can be your friend. A little squeal at the startup will take some load from the motor.

[Jeff Duncan]

I agree with Stephen....however I'm not an engineer either;) I did have a 20" planer for a little while that had a 5hp motor on it and worked OK. Certainly could have used more power....(which is one of the reasons I no longer have it), but if your not trying to mill 500 bd ft a day you may be just fine with a 5 horse motor.

good luck,
JeffD

[John Hiner]

Thanks everyone for your input. The motor is a new motor listed on Small Engine Warehouse.com. I am doing hobby type work and at this time would not be dressing more than 20 or 30 boards a week. There is another 5 hp motor for sale on the same site - I will attach a jpg for the name plate of that one. However, the shipping weight for the second motor is 10 pounds more than the motor in my previous post. I was wondering if Larry Browning (or anyone) might be able to explain what the difference is between the two motors.
250308

[Larry Browning]

Thanks everyone for your input. The motor is a new motor listed on Small Engine Warehouse.com. I am doing hobby type work and at this time would not be dressing more than 20 or 30 boards a week. There is another 5 hp motor for sale on the same site - I will attach a jpg for the name plate of that one. However, the shipping weight for the second motor is 10 pounds more than the motor in my previous post. I was wondering if Larry Browning (or anyone) might be able to explain what the difference is between the two motors.
250308

I looked at this motor, and from what I can tell, it is the same electrically, but I believe this one has some additional weatherproofing components. That is probably the weight differences. I am not the engineer, but the notes associated to this motor indicate that it has been modified for weatherproofing. I also know that it uses the exact same electrical components as the other one. Also, the 2nd one was manufactured in 2007 instead of 2005.