Posted by David Sherman on Tuesday, April 24, 2007 at 01:23:56 :
In Reply to: Re: o.t. wood planer question posted by Tom in Chicago on Tuesday, April 24, 2007 at 00:14:26 :
Everybody wants to see lots of sawdust and shavings flying. I go out on a limb here and say that there's really nothing in the home workshop that needs more than two honest horsepower and most of it can be done with one. My table saw is my dad's 1950s Craftsman machine, still with its original "1 hp" motor, and it'll push a sharp blade through any kind of wood as fast as I want to feed it. Isn't that good enough? Come to think of it, it cuts faster than my 1980s-vintage Jet table saw did with its "2 hp" motor that went up in smoke a few years back.
Some of the "hp hype" is just over-rated motors and specsmanship, but another real danger with excessive hp is that it tempts guys to push dull tools through the wood, resulting in tear-outs, scorching, raised grain, and other bad finishes. Who cares if that router bit is sharp if you have a "2 HP" router? Back when all tools were hand tools, time spent honing a chisel or a plane iron or filing a saw was time saved in using the tool. Even when power tools came along, when motive power was still modest and the tools were carbon steel, it was important to sharpen them frequently and carefully since even a little overheating would kill the temper. Now we just "power through" with high-speed steel and carbide.
I don't want to go back to spending an hour a day sharpening tools (of course back then, they'd have an apprentice to do it), but I also don't think that the rate of sawdust generation is an important measure of quality in a home shop tool.