[Bradley Padavick]

Just finished assembling the Harvey HW110LC-36P Cabinet Saw, had a brand new 20amp 120V circuit ran with a 5-20p outlet to accept the slotted blade plug. Tried to start the new machine and keeps tripping the breaker. Confirmed it’s pre-wired for 115v as it is also able to be wired for 220v, motor is not seized it moved freely. I am stumped, what am I missing here?

 

[Tony B]

The specs say 16 Amps.
I don't know how familiar you are with electricity, so i will ask: is there anything else on that same circuit breaker?
Also is the wiring sized properly for the distance your saw is from the circuit breaker box?
If that's not the problem, hopefully someone else will chime in.

 

[Bradley Padavick]

Just finished assembling the Harvey HW110LC-36P Cabinet Saw, had a brand new 20amp 120V circuit ran with a 5-20p outlet to accept the slotted blade plug. Tried to start the new machine and keeps tripping the breaker. Confirmed it’s pre-wired for 115v as it is also able to be wired for 220v, motor is not seized it moved freely. I am stumped, what am I missing here?

The specs say 16 Amps.
I don't know how familiar you are with electricity, so i will ask: is there anything else on that same circuit breaker?
Also is the wiring sized properly for the distance your saw is from the circuit breaker box?
If that's not the problem, hopefully someone else will chime in.

nothing else on there, it’s dedicated newly installed today, short run about 10 ft.

 

[Colosnoball]

nothing else on there, it’s dedicated newly installed today, short run about 10 ft.

Some brands and types of circuit breakers will allow an amperage spike for motor startups and some won't. If you dig deep into the specs for your motor, you might find the startup ampere rating. It most likely is much more than the 20 amp breaker.

You might ask your electrician (you?) to change the 20 amp circuit breaker to one that will handle motor startup spikes.

 

[Steve Neul]

Could the breaker be a gfci? They don't care for machinery. 20 amps should be a good fit, at 16 amps it's 80% of the circuit rating. If it isn't a gfci then either there is something wrong with the wiring in the saw or wiring to the saw. Have you tried running something else on that circuit?

 

[DrRobert]

EDIT Just looked it up, that’s a 2HP saw, IMO 110V is pushing it. What size breaker and wire? I think you would need 30A breaker and 10ga wire.

If it were me, I’d change it to 220V. All you would have to do is change breaker.

 

[woodnthings]

Just finished assembling the Harvey HW110LC-36P Cabinet Saw, had a brand new 20amp 120V circuit ran with a 5-20p outlet to accept the slotted blade plug. Tried to start the new machine and keeps tripping the breaker. Confirmed it’s pre-wired for 115v as it is also able to be wired for 220v, motor is not seized it moved freely. I am stumped, what am I missing here?

Simply replace the breaker with a new one as a first step basis for more diagnosis.

 

[kd5mdk]

Simply replace the breaker with a new one as a first step basis for more diagnosis.

I would suggest adding a high but less than 20 amp load (fan? other power tool, heater?) to see if that responds differently first just because it's a little easier, but this advice is likely to be the next step.

 

[packsteven575]

the breaker is too small, rewire with 10 AWG and a 30-amp brealer. specs call for 32Amp at 115 volts 20 Amps at 230 volts. Personally, I would rewire for 230 volts.

 

[Rick Christopherson]

Given your description, there is no reason for this to be happening on startup. In short, something is missing, either in the description, or describing a failure of the saw.

#1, how long is it taking between pressing the power button to the breaker tripping? If the trip is instantaneous, then there is a wiring problem. If it is several seconds, then the motor is not starting properly.

I'll ask more questions later, but this is the first thing for narrowing down the root cause.

 

[Rick Christopherson]

the breaker is too small, rewire with 10 AWG and a 30-amp brealer. specs call for 32Amp at 115 volts 20 Amps at 230 volts. Personally, I would rewire for 230 volts.

NO! This is not the answer. The saw should be able to startup unloaded from a properly installed 20-amp circuit. Don't go down this road, as it could hide the real problem.

 

[Rebelwork]

Contact Harvey support.

 

[FrankC]

I would talk to an electrician about the type of circuit breaker that is required in your situation, if tool wiring is correct you may need one with a higher in-rush limit.

 

[packsteven575]

No, the inrush current or locked rotor. is too high for breaker. Motor inrush current can sometimes be very high. I did electrical on 2 300 hp 3 phase motors with a load of 330 amp, one had 400 time delay fuses the other a 400-amp breaker on reduced starting. I run my Grizzly 2hp saw on 220 volts with 20-amp breaker, no problem.

2 hp

24 amps @115 volts

12 amps @240 volts.

 

[Rick Christopherson]

No, the inrush current or locked rotor. is too high for breaker.

This isn't a 300 hp motor. An unloaded 2 hp motor should not trip a 20-amp circuit on startup. He needs to solve this problem before loading the parts canon to resolve future problems. That may very well come, but for right now, he needs to determine why the existing setup is not working like it is supposed to.

The reason for my original question is to isolate one of the two major paths that will need to be diagnosed.

 

[FrankC]

Having read your identical thread on Lumberjocks It may be prudent to get an electrician on site to check what is going on as there are also other posts similar to yours on different forums. I have found over the years that all electric motors are not equal despite what the tag says, particularly when dealing with offshore products.

 

[ibewjwjon176]

A motor draws about 3 x run current on startup. You need to change to 240 volts, or a 30 amp, 10 awg 120 volt circuit.

 

[Mud]

FWIW, I have the Harvey Alpha table saw with 220V, 4 hp motor. I run it without issues on a 220V, 30 amp circuit (with L6-30 plug and receptacle) located in a subpanel. The subpanel is wired for 50 amp total service from the main panel.

Inside that subpanel is the 30 amp circuit for the saw. Also have the Harvey Alpha 220 V bandsaw on an L6-20 plug and receptacle, 20A circuit in the same subpanel. No issues at all.

IIRC, the harvey manual advises the amperage for your home's circuit in their manual.

 

[swp]

Read The Fine Manual, folks. Below from the Harvey website:

Now, 32A sounds like a lot, but that is what they say they require. While you can probably make it work on a 30A circuit, I don't recommend rounding down, so you most likely will need a 40A circuit if you insist on 120V operation. Assuming your electrician pulled 12ga wire, you can change it to 220V at 20A, install a dual breaker,, hook the white wire to the other breaker and rewire your motor for 220V. I say you can do that, but I do not recommend it because while that was OK in the '70s, it has been against code for a long time - the reason being that there is no neutral and some appliances count on having that neutral connection so they can have 110V for controls and 220 for motors and heaters -- but this saw won't need it. Code these days is 3 wires (red, black, white) plus ground for 220V.

The good news is you bought a real 2HP saw, not some liar's saw with bogus HP claims. I know we all have routers that claim to be 3HP+ that we run on 15A circuits all the time -- they are lying. (If you want to know more about that, just ask -- I've overdone it on this thread already.) You should expect inrush current on a saw of this size to be at least double the full load rating, which explains the 32A breaker recommendation or 2X the 16A rating for the motor.
Breakers are designed to have a slow response to a small overload and a fast response to a significant overload. A 2HP motor starting on a 20A circuit is probably pushing the limits of the breaker though not a risk to the wire unless you are doing a lot of stop-start cycles, but don't be tempted to just swap it out for a 30A breaker (it's the breaker's job to protect the wire).
Your best option would be to rewire for 220V.

 

[Rick Christopherson]

Really? Code requires a neutral on a 240-volt circuit? Wow, the amazing things I learn on a WW forum.