The right power cord for Hammer A3-31. Jointer/planer

[Rod Wolfy]

I had an electrician wire a new sub-panel to my garage (the house panel was on a different floor, about a 100' run). He then put in a 30amp breaker for my 5hp Grizzly 21" bandsaw.

I have an A3-41 coming in February (?). I wired in another 30 amp breaker and then ran 10/2 to a ceiling 30amp box (twist lock). The new J/P will be attached to this with a 10' 12 gauge cord. I ran a 12/2 to the same area from a 20amp breaker and it's connected to my SawStop.

[Derek Cohen]

Just for reference: my A3-31 is wired to 15amp/240v, and has worked flawlessly on this for about 5 or 6 years. It was installed by Felder but wired up by a woodworker/certified electrician, who tested the circuits. We both knew that it was recommended to run in 20 amp, but after considerable testing, it was determined that 11 amps was the true number. 15 amps to be safe.

The Hammer N4400 bandsaw runs on 20 amps (it needs the extra at startup), and the K3 slider is happy on 15 amps. All these machines use 4 h.p. motors.

Regards from Perth

Derek

[Matthew Hills]

Derek,
is each machine on a separate circuit?
I'd expect the typical setup for most hobby shops to be 1 circuit for tool and 1 circuit for DC.

Matt

[Derek Cohen]

Matt, I have a circuit for the house and a circuit for the workshop/garage.

The garage has 1x20amp, 2x15amp, and about 8x10amp. All 240v in Oz.

Regards from Perth

Derek

[Rod Sheridan]

Derek,
is each machine on a separate circuit?
I'd expect the typical setup for most hobby shops to be 1 circuit for tool and 1 circuit for DC.

Matt

That’s essentially what I have, a 20 ampere multi-wire branch circuit that feeds all the 120 and 240 volt receptacles except for the cyclone and lights....Rod

[Rollie Meyers]

The breaker is what protects the rest of the circuit. So in this case the 20amp breaker would only allow 20amps to go to the 30amp equipment down stream. This is fine.
The other way around 30amp breaker with 20amp wire and equipment would be a no no.

A 20A circuit breaker does not magically trip when it goes over 20 amperes, it depends on the percentage, and as it gets higher in the curve, the quicker it trips, they can hold about 130% almost indefinitely, but after that, it's going to react.

There are code compliant situations where you could you use 12 gauge wire with a 30-40A fuse or circuit breaker, not allowable for a branch circuit, but would apply to motors, & HVAC equipment, the reason is that there is overload protection for the motor, or compressor, so the fuse or circuit breaker is just for short circuit protection.