110V - Worth it for housebashing?

[overskilled]

Cheers all.
Lucien - figured as much.

Gnu: Hmmm now there could be the project for next winter....

 

[gnuuser]

we had one in our shop for the upper floors of the batch tower
everything was 3 phase up there so we made a portable and put the tranny in an enclosure.
after cutting in the vent slots we installed a cooling fan in it.
(since then we have run conduit and 110 v circuits up there and our boss sold our portable to our sister factory)

 

[Fin170]

230v with a plug in RCD for me, although not working on any big sites with my power tools (minus 18v drill)

Though when I've been putting in temporises I could question how carrying those ~80kg transformers up flights of stairs to see them sit in a dry place getting very hot is 'safer' :lol:

 

[Silly Sausage]

I used to sit my 1.5kVA tranny in a bucket of cold water...

 

[Lucien Nunes]

I agree about heavy duty gear GNU, but most UK tradesmen have a standard type of isolating transformer available at every tool store in the country in ratings of 750VA upwards. They are made to BS3535, encapsulated in a moisture resistant yellow resin case with splashproof EN60309 sockets and CE marked and safety approved for isolation purposes. They are usually good value and I doubt that you could build one for less, and if you did it would lack the necessary approvals.

Ultimately, it's not about which kind of transformer, but the infernal nuisance of being obliged to carry one with you at all. Most other 230V countries don't use them, they use 230V tools and RCDs / GFCIs. To see the British obsession with heavy yellow cubes, compare the results of the following three Google image searches:
110V tool transformer
110V Werkzeugtrafo
transformateur outil 110V

 

[Dcf]

I made the decision 20 year ago to buy 110v stuff.never had a problem.
here is an interesting one though.
the kitchen boys I work with have festool circular saws mostly 240v
i have the same saw in 110v.
the 240v has full wave electronics so it ups the grunt if it's getting pushed hard.
the 110v does not and will stop when carrying out the same hard going task.
We spoke to the festool rep who told us it was because of the electronics being fried in the 110v versions by the usual spider after spider getting plugged into a cooking site tranny of dubious voltage.
i don't see a problem when using your own tranny but site stuff is a mare at times

 

[Lucien Nunes]

Presumably Festool could make the 110V tool as effective and robust as the 230V, just sounds like they made a bad decision about how much to beef up the electronics for the extra current. Voltage drop on the usual rat's nest of site distribution is a problem though I agree. It's exactly the scenario where 230V really wins over 110V for usability.

 

[gnuuser]

for us most of our suppliers usually carry only the most commonly used items or order a speciality item or we have to go to industrial suppliers for anything else. (also usually end up having to pay absurd prices for the stuff too.
so we often build a lot of the equipment needed
its not so bad though its a good learning experience
securing the portable tranny on a hand truck makes it easier to move and more convenient