electrical question

[skylark]

I have a 16" makita circular saw. It is 1115 volt, 12 amp. It has a plug with 3 prongs similiar to what might be seen on a stove or drier. Can I replace this plug with a standard plug because with this set up it is useless to me. Any other suggestions?

[Dan McCosh]

That usually is a 220V. plug. Is it the original plug?

[willmarsh3]

I've seen three prong to two prong adapters with a grounding wire coming out the side. You want to get that instead and hook the ground wire to the screw in the middle of the outlet plate. Some tools these days are "double insulated" so they don't warrant the extra ground prong.

[kc8pql]

If you do indeed have a stove plug on a 115v saw, it's a very strange setup. There's no way for anyone to tell for sure what's going on without looking at it. Any answer you get over the internet is going to be a guess at best. If the advice is wrong, you risk burning up your saw or maybe electrocuting yourself. Take it to a service center and let them sort it out for you.

[Bob Cleek]

Sure sounds wierd. I put the same type of 220 VAC "drier plug" on a 220 VAC air compressor once when I had to run 220 from a drier wall plug out to where I had my shop before I ran dedicated 220 source lines. Worked okay, but the size of the plug suited a high wattage electric drier, not a low wattage compressor motor. The 220 compressor I had came from a fellow who had brought it over from Germany, where they run something like 220 in their standard wall outlets. It was a standard compressor motor and pump, exactly like an Emglo or any of the clones. For the life of me, I never could figure out if there was a way to rewire the motor for 110. I ended up running it on 220 here with no problems (yet.) Could it be that your saw was set up for European voltages and somebody did the drier plug number on it over here?

[htom]

Short: No.

Long: Take it to an authorized Makita repair shop and ask them what's going on with the weird plug. It is possible that it can be replaced with a standard plug, but whomever put on the strange plug may have made other internal modifications to the saw, and you want someone who really knows the insides to check it out.

[Tylerdurden]

On the plug are their any markings like a NEMA number? if its a molded cordset a photo of it might help here.

[Captain Blight]

Several of my tools and extension cords have that connection, I rewired them because they're a twist-lock, that way the cords don't come apart on me.


Did you buy the tool used?