Hello Everyone
I've been reading a lot of Sawmill Creek forums for several years, but this is the first time I'm posting.
The reason is my table saw motor has suddenly started drawing more current than I have available, and I need some help.
It's a 63 year old Walker-Turner, which has served me well for 20 years. It is a 1 HP, 110 Volt, 15.4 Amp brute of a motor. My breakers are only 15 amps, and I have tripped the breaker many times before, but only when pushing thick chunks of wood through the blade. Now it suddenly won't get up speed before tripping the breaker.
I plugged it in to another breaker circuit and had the same problem. I also replaced the switch and the starting capacitor, neither of which made a difference. I removed and blew out the motor, and it bench tested fine (It takes 2 minutes to wind down with load on it), but would not get up to speed once it was again attached to the saw arbour.
My speculation is that sawdust caused some damage to the motor, and it is now requiring more current to start. The start capacitor is smaller than the casing it is in, and even though I replaced it with an identical capacitor, am wondering if the capacitor had previously been replaced with one that may be too small. I am considering installing a 20 amp breaker, to overcome the problem. But I would like some advise before proceeding .
Garrick