Electrical requirements for Hammer A3-31.

[Darren Brown]

Whats up guys,

This post might belong in the workshops section so mods. please feel free to move it. I'm looking to find out the electrical requirements of an A3-31. The setup manual says you need to have a 30 amp circuit. Based on the actual requirements of the jointer/planer, I'm thinking this may be overkill. Right now I have a 20 amp circuit running in my shop with 12-2 wire, 20 amp plugs, receptacles, etc. An upgrade to 30 amp. means 10-2 wire, new plugs and receptacles, fishing fat wire through conduit and all the fun that comes with that. I'm trying to avoid it if I can. A little guidance would be much appreciated.

Thanks,

Darren Brown

[Rod Sheridan]

Hi Brian, I have an A3-31 running on a 15 ampere circuit.

It's worked fine for over two years.

Hammer specify the maximum overcurrent protection at 16 amperes, which is a standard size in Europe, so I could have gone with a 20 ampere circuit in Canada.

30 amperes wouldn't meet code requirements in Canada, since the manufacturer specifies a maximum value that could be satisfied by a 20 ampere breaker.

You're going to love your machine...............Regards, Rod.

[bill bruno]

Hi Darren,

To the best of my knowledge a circuit should never run at more than 80% capacity. For example, a 20 amp circuit should have a max load of 16 amps. Hope this helps.

bill

[Darren Brown]

Thanks guys.

[Bijesh Jacob]

Hi, not to hijack this thread. But I have ordered A3-31 and a k3. I have to wire for 220. If I wire for 30 amps can I run both the machines on the same circuit. I will only run one machine at a time. Will the 30amps cause an issue with the 15amp requirement of the a3?

Regards
Bijesh

[Tom W Armstrong]

Hi, not to hijack this thread. But I have ordered A3-31 and a k3. I have to wire for 220. If I wire for 30 amps can I run both the machines on the same circuit. I will only run one machine at a time. Will the 30amps cause an issue with the 15amp requirement of the a3?

Regards
Bijesh

Hey Bijesh,

The plugs/receptacles would be different for 30 amp (compared to the Hammer 20 amp plugs), but it wouldn't "hurt" anything as long as you use the 10-2 wire for it. I would just have them provide two 20 amp receptacles on the same circuit if you're not running at the same time. That's what I do.

[Rod Sheridan]

If the manufacturer specifies a maximum overcurrent protection value, the electrical code in Canada requires you to follow it regardless of what the code may otherwise allow.

I doubt if the American code would be different, code recognises that manufacturers of equipment know more about the specific equipment than the general code does.

Regards, Rod.

[Roger Jensen]

You probably either already know this or you may read the fine print on your warning label, but be sure to hold in the start button on the A3-31 until it is up to speed. I am running mine on a 20 amp circuit and was flipping the breaker on start up. I thought I needed more amps, but I only had to hold in the button longer.

Sorry if you already knew this (I obviously didn't).

Roger

[Bijesh Jacob]

Hey Bijesh,

The plugs/receptacles would be different for 30 amp (compared to the Hammer 20 amp plugs), but it wouldn't "hurt" anything as long as you use the 10-2 wire for it. I would just have them provide two 20 amp receptacles on the same circuit if you're not running at the same time. That's what I do.

Thanks Tom. I understood that the machines did not come with plugs and I would need to wire them. So I was looking to get an electician to add a 30amp circuit and then I would install 2 30 amp receptacles and plugs from HD.

Bijesh

[Rod Sheridan]

Thanks Tom. I understood that the machines did not come with plugs and I would need to wire them. So I was looking to get an electician to add a 30amp circuit and then I would install 2 30 amp receptacles and plugs from HD.

Bijesh

Hi Bijesh, before you do that, check what the maximum size breaker is allowed for the Hammer. I doubt if a 30 ampere breaker is allowed.

Regards, Rod.

[Darren Brown]

Just heard back from Geoffrey at Felder. He said they recommend a 20 amp circuit with a 20 amp "slow burn" breaker so I'm golden. Question now is, what is a "slow burn" breaker?

Darren

[Rod Sheridan]

It's what you have in your panel, it has an inverse time characteristic that trips faster as the overload increases in magnitude.

Regards, Rod.

And if you forget to hold the start button until the machine is up to speed, you'll get to verify the trip function of your breaker

[Bijesh Jacob]

Thanks guys. I will get a 20 amp breaker installed and hopefully remember to hold the button down when I get my machine

[Todd Zucker]

I am hopefully not hijacking this thread, but have what appears to be a closely related question. I am trying to plan the electrical connection for a Hammer A3-31 that is being delivered soon.

Our garage has a 220V NEMA 14-30 outlet (i.e., an electric clothes dryer outlet) that is supposed to be used as an electric car charger. We don’t have an electric car and don’t use the outlet, and I think the builder really wanted me to just put a Hammer in the garage.

The outlet is protected at the panel by tandem 30 amp breakers.

I was going to put a Turnlok plug on the A3, and then make an extension cord with about 10 feet of 12 gauge wire with a Turnlok connector on one end and a plug on the other end that will fit into the 14-30 outlet.

However, I see that the 30 amp breaker requires 10 gauge wire, and also that the A3-31 requires a 20 amp breaker. Could we just replace the 30 amp breakers in the panel with 20 amp breakers and use the rest of the setup described above.

I also saw a post from Paul Marcel (half inch shy) where he used all 4 wires from the 14-30 outlet and created an extension cord with a 2-gang metal box that had a 240V outlet for the big machine and a 110V GFCI outlet for the router, etc. Is that a good idea?

Whatever I do, I am going to have an electrician bless it and perhaps install it, but I was wanting to get the stuff thought out in advance.

[Ben Rivel]

I am hopefully not hijacking this thread, but have what appears to be a closely related question. I am trying to plan the electrical connection for a Hammer A3-31 that is being delivered soon.

Our garage has a 220V NEMA 14-30 outlet (i.e., an electric clothes dryer outlet) that is supposed to be used as an electric car charger. We don’t have an electric car and don’t use the outlet, and I think the builder really wanted me to just put a Hammer in the garage.

The outlet is protected at the panel by tandem 30 amp breakers.

I was going to put a Turnlok plug on the A3, and then make an extension cord with about 10 feet of 12 gauge wire with a Turnlok connector on one end and a plug on the other end that will fit into the 14-30 outlet.

However, I see that the 30 amp breaker requires 10 gauge wire, and also that the A3-31 requires a 20 amp breaker. Could we just replace the 30 amp breakers in the panel with 20 amp breakers and use the rest of the setup described above.

I also saw a post from Paul Marcel (half inch shy) where he used all 4 wires from the 14-30 outlet and created an extension cord with a 2-gang metal box that had a 240V outlet for the big machine and a 110V GFCI outlet for the router, etc. Is that a good idea?

Whatever I do, I am going to have an electrician bless it and perhaps install it, but I was wanting to get the stuff thought out in advance.

Yea this really should have an electrician look it over, but a couple points here. A typical electric dryer circuit in a home uses a four wire plus gound connector which has the two 220V you want, a 120V and a neutral which you dont need. So in order to deal with "downsizing" that connection you would need to safely deal with the live 120V and neutral wire somewhere. Also an extension cable for the circuit would have to be 10awg. You can also have a higher current breaker and larger gauge wire going to a machine than it needs. Its only going to pull what it can. Anything more isnt going to hurt it. Its UNDERsizing the circuit that you dont want to do.