Got both motors running - an amateur's guide to upgrading your Hitachi Resaw Bandsaw

I've noticed that the price on the current model of the Hitachi Resaw Bandsaw is now a wallet busting $3700 @ amazon.com. I've also noticed along with the higher price, is a bigger 2.8 HP motor. As per amazon's website: "The motor is a powerful 2.8 HP that you can upgrade and attach to the side mount with ease for that extra power." I guess someone in R&D @ Hitachi noticed that people tend to do the motor upgrade, swapping out the smaller 1.5 Hp motor and thought they'd join the party. Speaking as someone who as just successfully completed the upgrade on their fairly old 600A model (the predecessor to the current model), I couldn't be happier with the results. The saw just cuts and cuts and cuts. NO MORE BOGGING DOWN! So...for the curious here is a brief synopsis of what I did and how I did it. Keep in mind, I am not a professional, strictly an amateur who is not afraid to cut upgrade his tools. My total cost for the motor upgrade was about $300. I did all the work myself - took about 4-5 hours total. The best part of the upgrade was finding a NEW 5HP Baldor Motor on ebay, for a fairly decent price.

Now the title says, "Got both motors running"... The original motor on the saw, which I had thought had died, thus prompting me to finally upgrade it to a bigger motor, still works. In fact, I took all of the original power cords, etc. off the saw, plugged it in, and it fired right up. It was released back into the wild via ebay.

A couple of things to keep in mind. The rated RPM of the existing motor is about 900 rpm (according to the Hitachi Manual). Thus, depending on the RPM of the replacement motor, you should shoot for that as well. Turns out it's pretty easy to calculate using this URL:

http://www.temecularodrun.com/ref/rpm_calc.asp

There are 3 known values and one unknown, which is the NEW pulley size, assuming you don't reuse the old double pulley.

RPM Drive Motor: 1725
Drive Pulley Size: ???
Driven Pulley Size: 5"
Desired RPM: 900

The calculator then says I need a drive pulley (pulley on the motor) of 2.61 inches. I erred on the size of caution and I got one that was 2.75 inches. A 2.75 pulley gives an RPM of 949. Close enough! A 3250 RPM motor would need a pulley around 1.4".

So the next problem to solve was how to mount the thing to the saw. I was able to mount it "simply" by drilling some new holes in the motor mount plate and the saw's exterior mounting plate. I had to drill an elongated hole, so the bolt that sits at the bottom of the plate and allows you to adjust the belt tension, would simply slide through. The metal is thick, so I used a Cobalt bit and lots of cutting oil.

Once the new motor was mounted it seem to line up pretty well with the other pulley. Next, I put the motor's pulley on and wired in the new switch. I mounted the magnetic switch a small piece of plywood and used the old switch's mounting holes to mount the plywood.

The default rotation of the motor was backwards, so I had to reverse the motor direction as per the motor's wiring diagram. So...make sure you buy a reversible motor!

Now, everything is mounted and wired, it was time to put the belt cover back on. Of course it didn't fit with the new bigger motor - so I cut a hole in the belt cover where the pulley shaft of the motor was, to allow the shaft to "stick out" beyond the edge of the belt cover.

The old motor weighed about 15#. The new motor weighs about 85#.

Here is synopsis of parts/prices:
=================================

Motor: 5 HP Baldor 1725 RPM, 220V 21 AMP Motor. Frame 184T.
Source: Ebay.com
Cost: $225 (new).

Switch: 5 HP Rated 220V Magnetic Switch
Source: Taken from the Rockwell-Delta disk/belt sander combo machine
Cost: $0 (but I will have to replace the sander's switch and that will cost ~ $10)

Pulley: 2.7" OD 1-1/8" Bore 2-Groove 'B' Belt Pulley Maska
Source: ebay.com
Cost: $35

Belts: 2 48" Long New Goodyear V-belts (old belts were 45" long and just a little too short)
Source: Local auto-parts store
Cost: $41

Mounting Bolts with rubber washers inside the bolt
Source: Hardware Store
Cost: $2

Cord/Plugs: Heavy duty 220V power cord and 220V Twist n' Lock Plug
Source: The Shop
Cost: $0