Open drip over TEFC in certain applications?

[Rick Fisher]

Is there any reason to not use a TEFC motor in applications where less dust will access the motor?

I can see on a table saw, which is being plastered in dust. In an application where nothing can get at the motor, is it as big a deal?

I ask because I dont really understand it all that well.

[Mike Henderson]

An open frame motor will run cooler than a TEFC. Because it's easier to cool, it's usually less expensive.

If your application does not require a TEFC, an open frame is fine.

Mike

[Rick Fisher]

An open frame motor will run cooler than a TEFC. Because it's easier to cool, it's usually less expensive.

If your application does not require a TEFC, an open frame is fine.

Mike

How much dust can an open drip motor take? Could a band saw use one?

[Mike Henderson]

I used an open frame motor on my contractor's table saw. Every now and then the centrifugal switch would foul and the motor wouldn't start. I'd have to blow the motor out then it would work again - until it fouled again.

So my answer is, "If you don't mind blowing it out now and then, it will work fine."

Mike

[Frank Drew]

My 12" jointer came with a drip proof motor (driving a belt) and there was never a problem due to dust; a bandsaw might be equally forgiving since it doesn't tend to generate clouds of fine dust. But I think I'd want TEFC inside a table saw's cabinet, just because...

[Phil Thien]

My Sears contractor saw came w/ an open motor that had to be blasted out from time to time. Never a big problem.

[Peter Quinn]

My 12" jointer came with a drip proof motor (driving a belt) and there was never a problem due to dust; a bandsaw might be equally forgiving since it doesn't tend to generate clouds of fine dust. But I think I'd want TEFC inside a table saw's cabinet, just because...

I disagree regarding the bandsaw and dust. I find the bandsaw produces at least as much dust as any tool I have used, very fine and not so fine dust. My jointer produces very little dust by comparison. Mostly chips or shavings. I feel that a BS is less prone to shoot the dust it makes as great a distance as a TS does. For instance if I forget to turn on the DC, my bandsaw makes a cloud around the table and in the bottom wheel housing, the TS shoots a 5' racing stripe of dust toward the user and fills my pockets!

I do agree that a drip proof motor might be fine for a bandsaw application depending on where the motor is located. Mine is in a cabinet below the saw and sees very little dust. Even an externally mounted motor may be safe from the path of dust a band saw does create.

[Frank Drew]

I disagree regarding the bandsaw and dust. I find the bandsaw produces at least as much dust as any tool I have used, very fine and not so fine dust.

As much as a planer, as much as a router, or belt sander? Resawing produces a fair amount of sawdust but for most that's not an everyday thing, and even then I never noticed that it produced the air-filling light dust that some other tools produce, and that tend to drift into a motor's internal crevices.

But my main point was that it's the cabinet enclosure that makes a table saw motor more prone to dust accumulation where you don't want it; as you say, a band saw motor is usually out of the way of the debris, which in any case is mostly carried directly downwards by the band rather than flung all over the place.