Years of doubt about the performance of my LT18 (an old olive green variety from about 1994) led me to long covet a better cutting saw. A local hobbyist woodworker who had a shop too big to move sold me his LT14 SUV. I love it. It resaws hardwoods many times faster than with the old saw.
The difference leads to the question-- What is wrong with the LT18? It is clearly underpowered yet seems to run full speed when not under a substantial load. The motors on the saws are both rated at 3 HP. Even when resawing 8" cherry with a new 3/4" Lennox 3 tpi blade, the old saw could be made to completely stall even with a very, very slow feed rate.
Can a motor partially fail? Is there a simple test to determine the nature of the problem? I would like to sell the bigger saw to free up limited shop space but do not want to stick someone else with a faulty machine. Your insights would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks
David