Well, that wasn't obvious in any of your posts. So, I guess you should have said I have a 115/230 motor which will start and rotate when not on my saw, but when I connect it to may saw the 15A breaker pops.
So, we have a 1.5 HP/15 A motor...
Running on 12 AWG and not too far from the panel. Something like under 25' or so?
A saw should not have very little load on it when it starts.
Ordinarily, I would say we have to figure out what size wire and CB and thermal characterisics are required for the breaker.
I'm basically heading here: New pool pump trips breaker? [Archive] - DoItYourself.com Community Forums
Given, the new information, I'd like to have:
1. The distance from the breaker to the motor
2. The panel model
3. The breaker model that you used.
For now, make sure that the pulleys in the saw spin free and if you have a 20 AMP breaker to substitute in the 15 AMP place, do it.
Motors can draw as much as 5x their FLA current on start-up. A few things control tripping:
1. The time-trip curve of the breaker
2. The wire size
3. The breaker size
Depending on the duty-cycle and how often used, I might be inclined to use a single phase motor starter with overloads.
I'll see what I can find out. You may have to upgrade wire size, breaker size or re-wire for 230.
If you have 125 V in your shop then the FLA rating would increase by 125/115 or to at least 16.3 Amps.