I once measured my Mark V 520 drawing 0.44 hp of true electrical input power while spinning a sanding disk under no load. I have little doubt that the majority of that is transmission loss.RFGuy wrote: ↑Sun Dec 13, 2020 8:02 amDon't forget though that this "automatic transmission" created by the sheaves is just that, an automatic transmission so there is power loss associated with it compared to a direct drive. Does anyone know how efficient the Shopsmith design is, out of curiosity? Not exactly the same, but I think CVT transmissions in cars are only like 80% efficient if I recall correctly. So, this has to be taken into consideration as well when considering Shopsmith versus standard tablesaw horsepower.reible wrote: ↑Sat Dec 12, 2020 7:29 pm The blade listed is OK if it is still in like new condition. If it has been used a lot then I would worry. It needs to be sharp and clean.
A shopsmith has the advantage of being able to lower the speed and up the torque which is not common on most saws so while the HP seems lower it is really not that under powered. Just set to the lower range for ripping.
It is also critical that the machine have a nice clean waxed table for the wood to slide on, it must be aligned. You will also need some supports as both in feed and out feed.
Ed
You can see the scope waveforms at the link below. Note that image ordering got scrambled during some server port or another, so you’ll need to manually match the images to their description in the text.
viewtopic.php?f=9&t=16474