Thread: JET power rating vs Taiwanese rating

Can't comment on the exact rating of the Jet saws, but make the following general observations.

Horsepower/Kilowatt rating. You see this a lot, I know boats with diesels are quoted variously, but the only rating that matters is at the shaft (propellor). The different ratings are just the modern marketers attempting to con the punter - let's quote the crank rating - it looks better.

Standards would be great, but marketing's job is to muddy the water so no clear, informed choice can be made.

Jet, the brand. Having just bought every powertool known to modern man, and researched each, it seems that the established brands are melding into one generic, Chinese manufactured item. My last purchase was the generic version and it looked absolutely identical to the Jet and Delta badged versions.

Sorry, a bit off topic.

I always thought that the rating was based on current draw, 750w=1hp (approx).
I know that outboard motor manufacturers rate the hp at the flywheel (except Honda who have a true rating at the screw) and this sounds similar to what you are stating.
The Yanks also have a peculiar rating where they spin up a motor to maximum speed then stall and measure current draw, hence 10hp for a little domestic vacuum cleaner.
Theres lies, damned lies and statistics.
In short, what is the power of a saw????

I assume that you want to know whether the supersaw is powerful enough.

I can rip 6cm thick jarrah without problems.

That'll do me Scott. Did you go for dedicated crosscut/rip blades, or a combo job?

2 blades mate, 2 blades.

Originally Posted by TassieKiwi

A bit like the kW available at the driving wheels of a car vs the power at the crankshaft (up to 30% less).

THis would rate the JET supersaw at say 1.75x1.3=2.3p?

Dont think you can translate the 30% from cars to a piece of woodworking equipment.

A car engine uses up some of it's power to drive the alternator, the oil pump, and the water pump. Also the transmission in a car is much more complex and hence prone to more power loss.

The table saw on the other hand only drives the blade and does that via a belt and hence has very little losses. If there were high losses then you would expect the arbor and drive belt to be getting very hot as they absorb this wasted power.

The power of a motor in h.p is meant to be the power available from the motor.

But some shifty importers quote the power of a motor as the amount of electrical power consumed by a motor, apparently in an attempt to make cheap stuff appear to be equivalent to good quality well designed equipment.

Many units here do as has been noted, giving max HP ratings instead of running. For years, most contractors saws were listed as 3 HP, when in fact they developed 1.5 HP while running. You just learned to take it all with a grain of salt. Kind of like reading the mileage figures given for cars. You can acheive it if you run the car on a dyno, in an enclosed building with no external influences on the vehicle. Then they always end their marketing speech with something like: "of course your mileage may vary".