I bought a SawStop PCS1.75 5 years ago and contemplated the 3hp model, but I did not have easy access to 240v in our old garage. We have since moved and I now have a dedicated shop space (15’x15) off of the garage with it’s own distribution panel. A couple of weeks ago I had some 8/4 hard maple that I needed to rip. The saw was struggling. 1. I was using the wrong blade for the job and 2 the board was releasing a lot of tension. After the breaker blew the first time, I realized it was the wrong blade, after putting in the proper ripping blade, it was better, but it was still struggling (blew the breaker at least once and the internal breaker a couple of times). This lead me to finalize the decision to upgrade.
When I bought the PCS back in 2013, I did ask prior to purchase if the motor was upgradeable and at the time I was told it was. Five years later I wasn’t sure if it was still an option or if I would have to decide to live with it or replace the whole saw. I called SawStop tech support while I was at work and the tech was able to look up my saw from when it was registered, confirmed I could upgrade, and listed the parts I would need to order.
.
This is what I ordered: a new motor, the gas strut for the larger motor, and the new electrical contactor box (included a 9’ power cable with standard 208-240 20amp plug). The only actual directions were for replacing the contactor, which tech support emailed me. The motor and strut are pretty straight forward. Remove old and replace with new. Since I have a tendency of not doing myself any favors, this was no exception. I have a cast iron router table mounted on the left wing of the saw and a permanent cabinet for an outfeed table. I am not a small man, but this is the space I had to work.
Getting the old motor out was not too bad. It is held in with two 3/4” bolts and isn’t horrible to try to balance and lift out when on your hands and knees. Once the motor was out the gas struts were a piece of cake. Installing the larger motor is not so much fun. The new motor weighs twice as much. Trying to lean forward and balance on my knees while hoisting a 50 pound motor into position and then trying to insert a bolt proved impossible. After crushing my hand and slamming my head into the underside of the cast iron, I chose to not pick up my phone to take pictures as I was sure I would choose to throw it across the shop instead. After a fifteen minute full blown melt down (I didn’t create any new curse words, but may have used artistic license to create some new combinations) I went back to brainstorming an option. I came up with creating a mini hydraulic table with a 3-ton floor jack.
I started by finding a narrow enough and long enough scrap of 3/4 ply. I originally strapped the motor and the ply to the pivoting head of the jack. Once I slid it all into position, I added a strap across the back of the plywood to the lower frame of the jack. This created a situation where the weight of the motor cantilevered off of the elevated portion of the jack with the stress on the back of the plywood through the strap to the frame of the jack. I removed the strap holding the motor and was easily able to slide the motor into place, insert the top bolt, get the jack out of the way, hook up the belt, and finish the bolts on the motor.
The wiring instructions for the contactor box and switch are very clear and the whole wiring conversion took all of 15 minutes. All told, it took me two hours to convert over the saw. In my case it took me 15 minutes to run a new 240v circuit and the process was complete. I was somewhat nervous when I originally turned the saw on again and it went through it’s initialization. It threw an error code, but it was because there was not a blade on the saw. I slapped a blade in and powered it up. Everything operated fine.
Thank you for indulging me in a very long-winded way of saying it is possible to convert a 1.75 PCS into a 3hp PCS.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
When I bought the PCS back in 2013, I did ask prior to purchase if the motor was upgradeable and at the time I was told it was. Five years later I wasn’t sure if it was still an option or if I would have to decide to live with it or replace the whole saw. I called SawStop tech support while I was at work and the tech was able to look up my saw from when it was registered, confirmed I could upgrade, and listed the parts I would need to order.
.
This is what I ordered: a new motor, the gas strut for the larger motor, and the new electrical contactor box (included a 9’ power cable with standard 208-240 20amp plug). The only actual directions were for replacing the contactor, which tech support emailed me. The motor and strut are pretty straight forward. Remove old and replace with new. Since I have a tendency of not doing myself any favors, this was no exception. I have a cast iron router table mounted on the left wing of the saw and a permanent cabinet for an outfeed table. I am not a small man, but this is the space I had to work.
Getting the old motor out was not too bad. It is held in with two 3/4” bolts and isn’t horrible to try to balance and lift out when on your hands and knees. Once the motor was out the gas struts were a piece of cake. Installing the larger motor is not so much fun. The new motor weighs twice as much. Trying to lean forward and balance on my knees while hoisting a 50 pound motor into position and then trying to insert a bolt proved impossible. After crushing my hand and slamming my head into the underside of the cast iron, I chose to not pick up my phone to take pictures as I was sure I would choose to throw it across the shop instead. After a fifteen minute full blown melt down (I didn’t create any new curse words, but may have used artistic license to create some new combinations) I went back to brainstorming an option. I came up with creating a mini hydraulic table with a 3-ton floor jack.
I started by finding a narrow enough and long enough scrap of 3/4 ply. I originally strapped the motor and the ply to the pivoting head of the jack. Once I slid it all into position, I added a strap across the back of the plywood to the lower frame of the jack. This created a situation where the weight of the motor cantilevered off of the elevated portion of the jack with the stress on the back of the plywood through the strap to the frame of the jack. I removed the strap holding the motor and was easily able to slide the motor into place, insert the top bolt, get the jack out of the way, hook up the belt, and finish the bolts on the motor.
The wiring instructions for the contactor box and switch are very clear and the whole wiring conversion took all of 15 minutes. All told, it took me two hours to convert over the saw. In my case it took me 15 minutes to run a new 240v circuit and the process was complete. I was somewhat nervous when I originally turned the saw on again and it went through it’s initialization. It threw an error code, but it was because there was not a blade on the saw. I slapped a blade in and powered it up. Everything operated fine.
Thank you for indulging me in a very long-winded way of saying it is possible to convert a 1.75 PCS into a 3hp PCS.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
