Should I convert 6" jet jointer to 220?

[travis howe]

Anyone converted the jet cabinet jointer to 220? Does it noticibly improve? Just notice that even when taking light cuts w/ hard wood and new blades I can bough this beast down.

Thoughts?

I've love to get a 8" but just no funds yet!

Anyone have a new Jointer that really surprised them with performance?

[Jim Becker]

There is no benefit to converting the tool to 240v use unless it's more convenient for you to plug it into a 240v circuit for some reason.

[travis howe]

I sort of figured that. Any jointers that I should be "dreaming" about?

[Tom Veatch]

Anyone converted the jet cabinet jointer to 220? Does it noticibly improve? Just notice that even when taking light cuts w/ hard wood and new blades I can bough this beast down.

Thoughts?

I've love to get a 8" but just no funds yet!

Anyone have a new Jointer that really surprised them with performance?

Now, that is strange. I've never run mine (JJ-6CSX) on anything but 240v, but I've never noticed it laboring, bogging down, etc.. The vast majority of my use is preparing rough cut red/white oak and ash with the occassional maple and walnut. It's always breezed through everything I've asked of it without noticable effort.

In the vast majority of cases, I'll agree with Jim that there isn't any advantage to running on 240 vs 120. The motor components see the same voltage in either case. Occasionally using the high voltage in a dual voltage motor, one may see improvements in motor performance under highly loaded conditions. That would happen only where there is a relatively high voltage drop in the supply wiring.

There's absolutely no downside of converting the motor to the higher voltage, other than the expense of the proper plug for the power cord. So if you have a 240v circuit available, I'd suggest switching it over. It's very simple to do and there's a small chance, but no guarantee, that you may see an improvement.

[Jason Beam]

Jim and Tom have you covered on the wiring thing - I'll just add that you won't see any improvement going to 240v unless your existing 120v circuit is unable to supply the proper amperage. So .. yeah .. you might see some improvement, but maybe not.

As for the bogging down - check the belt tension. Make sure it's pretty snug. That'd be my first suspect. If the belt's tensioned enough and it still bogs down, I'd pull the belt off and check the bearings on both the motor and the cutter head - CAREFULLY. They should both spin freely with little to no sound - especially from the cutter head. If you get noise, the bearings are probably bad and that could be causing things to bog down.

Failing those two things, you might have a motor going bad, which would possibly be my next line of attack.

I'd check the belt and bearings before I went through any trouble with the wiring, myself. Heck, even replace the belt, maybe it's gotten slick over time. :)

[Chip Lindley]

One facet not addressed is that the jointer is simply underpowered for taking full cuts! I suspect that regardless of what horsepower is advertised, the motor is no more than a 1/2 hp drawing about 6 amps on 120v. And some of the cheaper Tiawanese motors are wasteful of power rather than converting it to usable torque.

If the motor is 1725 rpm the situation worsens. The motor is in "high gear" to achieve a cutter head speed of over 5000 rpm, and even less power is transmitted to the cutterhead. You would see a marked improvement in torque by using a higher hp 1725 rpm motor (3/4 hp about 8 amps, 1 hp about 14amps) If a 3450 rpm motor were substituted at the same amp rating, you would see a vast improvement in power. But, remember that a motor pulley half the diameter of yours would have to be substituted at 3450 rpm.

Either solution will give your jointer more BUTT for making full 6" cuts !! Switching to 240v would only be useful when the motor draw threatens to trip a typical 120v, 15A breaker. I had this problem with a Rockwell contractor saw (15A) which constantly blew the breaker ripping oak on 120v. It cut like a champ when I switched to 240v, drawing only 7.5A !!

[Gregg Feldstone]

How does this relate to upgrading a jointer from 110v to 240v?

I have a 2001 model of the same jointer, which is the green one that only has a 3/4 hp motor and have never had it bough down. Do you always make sure your tables are waxed?

[Tom Adger]

I converted my Ridgid jointer to 220v for two reasons. First, I have 220 in my shop to power my compressor. Second, before I converted it I noticed that when I turned it on, the shopvac would slow down, lights would dim, etc. Also, what do you mean by a "light" cut? I rarely take more than a 64th off at a time. It doesn't slow the machine down, and is easier on the blades.

[Pete Bradley]

If the motor is 1725 rpm the situation worsens.
No it doesn't. As long as the cutterhead speeds are the same, it doesn't matter if the motor is 1725 or 3450 RPM, the only thing that matters is the HP (give or take some minor effects of belting.

Pete

[Ben Davis]

I disagree. It's like running your bike on the smallest (highest) gear and then trying to go up a hill. It takes less "oomph" to pedel twice as fast with a larger (lower) gear than keep the same pace at the small (high) gear.

The voltage drop would be less.

[Mike Henderson]

No it doesn't. As long as the cutterhead speeds are the same, it doesn't matter if the motor is 1725 or 3450 RPM, the only thing that matters is the HP (give or take some minor effects of belting.

Pete
Pete's right. HP is torque times angular velocity so a 1725 RPM motor has twice the torque of a 3450 RPM motor in order to produce the same HP. You'll notice that a 1725 RPM motor is physically larger than a 3450 RPM motor of the same HP rating.

If you take a 1725 RPM motor and use 1:2 gearing, the torque delivered to the cutter head is one half the torque produced by the motor - but that torque is exactly the same as would be produced by a 3450 RPM motor, and delivered to the cutter head with 1:1 gearing.

There just isn't any free lunch.

Mike

[Bob Aquino]

I converted my Ridgid jointer to 220v for two reasons. First, I have 220 in my shop to power my compressor. Second, before I converted it I noticed that when I turned it on, the shopvac would slow down, lights would dim, etc. Also, what do you mean by a "light" cut? I rarely take more than a 64th off at a time. It doesn't slow the machine down, and is easier on the blades.

If you are noticing it slowing down, its not the conversion to 220 but the fact that you moved it off an already loaded 110 circuit. You are already telling us you have lights and a shopvac running on the same breaker because they are dimming when it was turned on. If it was on its own or lightly used 110 circuit, there would be no noticable difference between the two.

[Bob Aquino]

I disagree. It's like running your bike on the smallest (highest) gear and then trying to go up a hill. It takes less "oomph" to pedel twice as fast with a larger (lower) gear than keep the same pace at the small (high) gear.

The voltage drop would be less.

To use your bicycle analogy, on a multispeed bike, there are several combinations of crankwheel and rear cog that will result in the same number of turns of the crank spinning the rear wheel the same number of rotations. The work the rider does is not changed though he might find that its a bit of a crossover at the extreems. Electrically, there would be a slightly less of a voltage drop with 220 vs 110, but nothing that the operator would be able to notice.