New to this forum, and have a question.

[~Phil]

Hi, I'm new to this forum and you guys seem to be a really active group with plenty of passion!

I've been building up my home wood shop for the past couple of years and collected a handful of useful tools: table saw, jointer, thickness planner, biscuit jointer, Random orbital sander, etc. Enjoying them a lot, but ... I'm going to be moving from Vancouver to Auckland.

I've been blown away at how much these tools cost down under. Do you think I should sell my tools and slowly build up my collection in NZ, or bring them over and try and replace the electric motors. I know my Ridgid tools say that they can be wired for 220V, but I think the 60->50Hz will be the real problem with over heating because the lower speed and reduced torque.

Anyway, any words of advice from you guys/gals about tools. Perhaps some body has been in the same boat? Can someone drop the name of a few shops in Auckland of interest to woodworkers: tools, wood etc. Here in Vancouver we have Lee Valley (x2) - what's the equivalent in Auckland? Thanks a lot.

[Manuka Jock]

Phil ,
I can't help you with the tool shops in Auckland other than
Carba-Tec NZ Pty Ltd
110 Harris Rd
East Tamaki
Auckland NZ
Ph: 09 274 9454
Fax: 09 274 9455

As to the power tools working here safely , I know guys from Britain have theirs work ok with replugging , if thats' any help .

cheers ,
Jock

PS.
Over this way a jointer is called a buzzer , and a thickness planner is a thicknesser .
The hand held planner is also a buzzer

[IanW]

Phil - I moved back to Aust. 20 years ago after a long time in Canada. At that time, prices of stationary tools here were considerably more than Nth American prices, so I was faced with the same decisions as you are now. I was warned that switching the field windings on my 60Hz motors was likely to cause trouble, so I left most of the motors there, and replaced them here (lathe, tablesaw & bandsaw). Out of curiosity, I left the 60Hz motor on the drill press & rewired it for 220. My informants were dead right - it ran noisily, and heated up quickly, but I got away with it for quite a few years, because drill presses usually have a short duty cycle. However, I think if I'd tried to use the 60Hz motors on the other tools, there would have been big trouble, of the smoky kind!

So my advice is to scrap the motors & replace - it's not too hard to get good replacements, and if you like your current tools, it's a lot cheaper than selling them off & starting over.

Universal motors (the ones with carbon brushes) on drills, angle grinders, etc., are a different matter - they are voltage-dependant, so you just need a transformer. I had some pretty decent drills & routers, which would have cost a lot to replace with equivalents, so I went another way. It needs a pretty hefty transformer to cope with a large router, but it was still cheaper than buying all new, at the time. However, I found it a right PITA, having to drag a thumping great transformer round all the time, and in retrospect, I would have been much happier starting over, particularly as they have all now expired & been replaced. (All, that is, except a "Canadian Tire" car battery charger, which gets used once per blue moon, and still looks & acts like a new one!) If you have a really decent battery drill you wanted to hang on to, that's a lot easier, as the charger only needs a small transformer - or you might manage to pick up a second-hand 240v charger for next to nothing, depending on if the same models were sold over this way, as many were.

I also still have a gutsy 1/2 HP 110V Makita drill that will twist your arms off if the drill jams, but I never use it any more - got so tired of dragging round that transformer, I went & bought an el-cheapo 240V hammer drill. It's a junky thing, with a pathetic excuse for a chuck, but does the job on the few occasions I need a big drill. So if anyone nearby is moving to a 110 volt country, you are welcome to have the Makita - I almost chucked it out the other day, but just couldn't bring myself to toss out a perfectly good tool.....
Cheers,