I was lucky to acquire a Supermax 25" dual drum sander (for FREE).
The machine requires a 230volt circuit which I had installed in my garage.
The sander needs some electrical work; all the cords had been cut but I tested the 5 hp (1 ph) motor and it works fine. As I started to replace all the electrical cords I discovered the power cord has 4 wires (red, white, black, & green). The power cord runs into a control box with 4 wires. From the control box a 3 wire cord runs to a ON/OFF switch which powers the main motor. My new 230v outlet has only 3 wires. How can I make this work?
Anyone with enough electrical knowledge that can help?

Sounds to me like this is a 120/240 circuit. There is probably a main motor that use 240 and a smaller motor that uses 120 like for the feed motor. The way that is wired is the red and black are the two hot phases like a normal 240 circuit. The white is a neutral that is used for the 120 volt return. The green is a ground. An electrician can fix you up easily by adding the neutral. This type of circuit is commonly used for electric ranges where the burners are 240 but the clock and timer circuits are 120.

Steven Naslund
Chicago IL

Congratulations.

I have been lucky finding manuals for may
tools and other items by searching the Internet.

I suggest looking for the user's manual too.

If the manufacturer's site does not have it,
the Yahoo groups may have a group that
supports the sander.

There is also a group of folks who have a Yahoo
and Internet site for OWW.

Best of luck.

My Woodmaster actually has 2 cords. A 3 wire 220 for the 5 HP drum motor and a 110 for the belt. Im not sure about the performax. Does it have 2 seperate motors or 1 running both? Post a pic or two and I will try to help. I've been an electrican working in the industreal trade for over 20 years so I may be able to walk you thru it. (Standard boilerplate CYA stuff.....) If you are unsure please hire a licensed electrician to help you. Anything I tell you is just a guide as it isn't possible to do the work without seeing it in person. Electrical work can be dangerous and cause injury or death...yada yada yada....LOL!

Some 220 run 4 wires seperate the the ground from the nutral. Code years ago told us we could bond the ground and nu wire so you had 2 120 volt hots and 1 green/white ground. Most are cross bonded in the load center anyway but depends on local code. Most, not all, only require 4 wire systems if you will draw 50 amps or more.

Its tought to tell without seeing it but sounds like you will have a black hot, a red hot,a white nutral, and a green ground if yours is 4 wire. If its 3 wire you will have a black hot, white hot, and a green ground/nutral.

Thanks for the help. I figured it out with the help of an electrician at my work.

in previous life I used to do electrical work, and Lyall is right on.


If I had to guess you may need the "neutral" for a 120 volt motor.

Glad you have it worked out. Did the extra wire goto the 110 motor or was it just not needed? I thought about pulling 110 from 1 phase or leg of my 240 to run the conveyer on my Woodmaster. The only reason I didn't is the motor has no built in overload and the 30 amp double pole breaker is WAY 2 big. I do have a set of heaters and an instantainoius overload I took off my 3 phase jointer line starter tho.....hmmm...new project! I could eliminate the 110 cord and still trip out just the .5 horse motor. Sorry, thinking out loud again....I'll let y'all know how it works out in case you want to do the mod.

Another thought came to me, could you actually have 3 phase unit?

in this case, why not just put a new switch as you know how to make
the motor run?
looks like a lot of power (~4kW) for 1ph motor, make sure the breakers
can take the start load and that the wires are of adequate gauge.
as said before, some pics can work wonders for providing assistance