The Papa, he is ALIVE!!! But his teeth, they are a leetle rusty... (Italian accent)

[John Sanford]

So, I finally got 'lectricty flowing to the Esteemed Papa Griggio. I likely made it more difficult than it needed to be, but that's one of the downsides to not being an electrician or electrical engineer.

That said, I have a few questions for the bandsaw gurus hereabouts.

Mildly rusted blades: The saw came with a small pack (saw blades travel in packs, because they have so many sharp teeth) of blades. Many of them have some rust on them. I'm not to concerned with whether or not they are uber sharp, but whether or not surface rust is going to materially compromise the band's integrity.

Using breaker as an on-off switch for my rotary phase converter? Yea or nay? As I rent, putting in a subpanel to the garage, or any other electrical work, is a low/no probability consideration. So I put together a honkin' extension cord that carries wondrous 230v juice from the dryer outlet to my RPC. The RPC itself has no switch. Plug it in, it fires up. Rather than monkeying with plugging and unplugging the thing, (which I did several times today), I realized I could just flip the breaker. Note that this is only to start the RPC. The saw itself will only be switched on and off at the machine. If putting a switch in on the RPC is recommended, kindly provide details on what sort of switch and such. And remember, this is all "temporary power."

Dust: It can really hide in a bandsaw, and it all likes to come out when you fire the puppy up. I thought I'd gotten pretty much all the dust out when I cleaned the beast after I got it... nope.

[Greg Peterson]

I do not have an answer for the RPC, just curious about what you are doing for dust collection.

[Ethan Melad]

Don't know whether using the breaker as a switch is necessarily a bad thing, but mine has 60amp (maybe 90A?) disconnect between the breaker and the RPC. Actually, I have 2 disconnects - 1 main switch to send power to the RPC and one on the line out.

[Chuck Saunders]

breakers are not swtches, continued useage will result in failed protection -- bad

[Peter Quinn]

Get a mag starter, wire it into a J box, don't hose your breaker (or more to the point your landlords). Its going to cost you $150 bucks soup to nuts? Worth it IMO. Let the break be a breaker. Least case wire up a $50 J box with breaker or knife switch at the motor end as a controller, leave the panel breaker alone. I threw a 30A J-box with built in breaker in line near my TS, wasn't more than $50? Got real sick of unplugging it for every blade change. Is there a mag switch on the BS? Point is you don't ever want the RPC starting under load I'm told. You want it to be running and at full power BEFORE you start the machine. SO what if power flickers? Lights go out for a moment? Happens here often enough. Motor stops....power comes back on...saw now demanding power, starting RPC under load. Mine has a mag starter on the RPC and ever device up line has its own, so momentary power loss results in a disconnect, never starts motor under load.

Surface rust on blades? Not a problem IMO, throw them on, careful and not under power give them a quick wipe with synthetic wool and a little oil, run some scrap in to clean it up, good enough for me.