As many of you read in join the folks at Middle Tennessee Lumber, and a great part of my new job is that I'll be back teaching at the NWFA schools. I'll still try to post some of my insights from the road here on my blog.
I just got back from the NWFA school in California, and I wanted to share one part of our field maintenance class. We were asked: Can I run my sanders off a generator?
The answer is: Yes, you can, so long as you follow this rule:
Take 750 watts X the horsepower X 2, and that is the minimum size generator you will need. So if your sander is 4-hp, here is the math:
750 watts x 4 hp = 3,000 Watts X 2 = 6,000 Watts
That is the smallest unit you can run the big machine on. The concern is startup because the unit will pull it down on startup. So, I like to use 750 X 4 = 3,000 X 4 = 12,000. That way when the unit starts up, it will not bog down the generated power we need to start up the big machine.
