Originally Posted by
Erik Loza
Kurt, I'm going to float this out there: Feel free to accept or reject as you like. I've been witness to this exact conversation with hobbyist ww'ers MANY times and it invariably goes one of two ways.
#1.) After running through all the mental gymnastics of what it would look like to actually acquire your ideal used machine (which often doesn't exist), and after running through all the mental gymnastics of getting a phase converter installed, the customer ends up back where they started and just buys a new 1-phase machine.
#2.) After running through all the mental gymnastics above, the customer decides it was just too much and ends up sticking with whatever smaller machines they have and never actually buy anything after all.
Not saying this is necessarily you, Kurt, just that I've seen the this scenario unfold many times in the past. Yes, there are some hobbyist owners here with three-phase machines and converters in their home shops and that's great but they would definitely be in the minority and more importantly, from a woodworking perspective, there is nothing you would be doing that a decent single-phase saw in the 4-5HP range couldn't accomplish. Your wallet and you should do what you want but from a buyer's standpoint, I think probably will find that by the time your search is over, it might even be cheaper to just get a 1-phase machine and be done with it so you can get on to actual woodworking. Again, just an opinion from a different perspective and good luck in your search.
Erik