Powering a 7.5 hp 3ph wide belt

[Kevin Jenness]

I'm looking at a used Powermatic 1632 unit and want to be sure I have the juice for it. I have a 10hp rotary convertor on a 50A 220V 1ph circuit. Seems like the machine should work with a 3ph 30 amp breaker and 10 ga wire, but I know widebelts pull a lot of amps at startup. Anyone with experience of a setup like this care to comment?

[Bradley Gray]

I have a old 24" Monarch planer 7hp that I run on a Kay 10hp RPC and it works fine. I previously used a 7hp homemade converter. It worked but struggled at startups and bogged down with heavy cuts. Now it will take 1/4" passes no problem.

How wide is a 7 1/2hp sander?

[Kevin Jenness]

This is a 16" wide open end unit. My concern is that wide belts tend to draw a lot of current when starting compared to planers and saws. I currently run a 6.5hp tablesaw and a 5hp compressor on my rpc without issue

[Erik Loza]

Kevin, in my experience, widebelts don’t actually pull as many starting amps as someone might think. At least not when compared to a planer of nearest size. The energy needed to get something like 60lb.+ cutterblock spinning is way higher than getting the belt started. It was actually Larry Katz of Kay Industries who explained this to me.

The real amp draw on WBs is under operation, hence the ammeter that’s always on the front. Maybe you’re aware of all this, already. My gut reaction is that you “should” be OK on your current rotary but that’s just me educated guess. Hope this helps,

Erik

[Kevin Jenness]

Thanks, Eric. The seller is powering it with a 10hp rpc, so I should not have a problem.