Wire You Reading This?

It is the third of October, and my workshop now has two 50-amp outlets and three 20-amp outlets. I have a third 50-amp receptacle waiting to be installed. When I get that receptacle wired up, I will mount my 10-HP phase converter on the wall, and I will call a rigger to bring my machine tools to Ocala.

After, that I’ll be ready for the rapture.

It has been confusing, trying to figure out the best way to wire up the shop. I have a Square D Homeline main panel and a Square D QO 250V subpanel. They use completely different breakers, and the breakers offered in the QO line are less versatile.

I guess you’re confused now, too.

Main panels and subpanels come with a limited number of spaces for circuits. On top of that, my workshop main panel uses one of its breaker spaces to connect to the main panel in the house. That’s really stupid. I can free up space by buying what is known as a “frame size” breaker. It’s a big breaker that goes above the other breakers and doesn’t use one of their spaces. Costs over $50.

Right now I am relying on a 100-amp breaker to connect to the house, plus two 250V breakers and two 125V breakers. One of the 250V breakers connects the main panel to the shop’s subpanel, so that kills a space.

Because the main panel is from the Homeline…line…I have the option of using what are known as quad breakers. They combine two 250V breakers in one space. I bought two of them. They let me put two 50-amp breakers and two 20-amp breakers in two spaces. I used them to give me a 50-amp receptacle beside the main panel as well as two new 20-amp receptacles in the north wall. I can’t use quad breakers with my QO subpanel, so it’s like having a much smaller panel.

It looks like I made a bad choice when I bought the QO subpanel. I didn’t know what I was doing. It was really cheap, and I figured it would do the job, but I didn’t know the QO breaker options were so limited. I think the thing to do is to go to Lowe’s tomorrow, get myself a bigger Homeline subpanel, and throw out my brand-new QO subpanel and the breakers I got for it. Maybe some of them are still returnable. I guess it’s not a big deal. I could lose $50, all told.

I’m going to run #3 copper wire from the main panel to the subpanel. The main panel receives 100 amps from the house, and I am going to provide big enough wire to send all 100 to the subpanel. I have no plans to use that much juice, but big wire is a good thing. It stays cooler, and heat is what causes electrical fires. Obviously.

That size wire is very expensive locally, but I found a company online that sells it for a little over a buck a foot. It has already arrived. Code says I can use it in 3/4″ conduit, so that’s what I bought.

When I’m done, the phase converter will have its own outlet and breaker, and I can have as many welder outlets as I want. I would like to leave the Harbor Freight multiprocess welder and my AHP TIG/stick machine plugged in all the time for convenience. My Lincoln isn’t as useful, so I see no need to provide a receptacle for it.

I have to put my machine tools on the north wall, and that’s where I installed my woodworking tool cabinet, which is a 72″ Husky from Home Depot. It’s a great cabinet. I put wheels on it, even though you’re not supposed to. It has a safety strap which attaches it to the wall, so wheels are not a safety problem. Today I had to move the cabinet, and that proved I was right to get the wheels.

Since I had to move it, I used the opportunity to paint the inside white. The cabinet is black, and when tools are inside it, they are hard to see. It’s like a cave in there. I bought myself some Krylon white appliance epoxy, and I moved the cabinet outdoors and started spraying. I had to get myself a Tyvek suit. When you spray the outside of a thing, the paint mist blows away. When you spray the inside of a cabinet, the cabinet holds the mist so it tries to settle on you and in your lungs. Frustrating. My $14 Tyvek suit minimizes the damage, and I look sexy in it.

The cabinet is great. I don’t know what they were thinking when they chose to make it black, however.

It’s amazing how hard it is to paint a black object white. I have gone through three cans of Krylon, and I’m not done.

My table saw is now on the south side of the shop, and the cabinet will be moved that way, too. I’m thinking of running a 30-amp circuit over there, just for the saw.

I’m also thinking of modifying the Husky rolling cabinet I got for my wood lathe. I bought a Dustopper for it. This is a special lid for a 5-gallon bucket. You put it in front of a shop vac, and as the air goes through it, almost all the dust falls out. It turns a shop vac into a pretty good dust collector.

I put the Dustopper on a bucket and tried to fit it in the cabinet. It will go, but it’s too tall to attach a hose. I got frustrated trying to think of ways to change it. Then I realized it was sitting on a bucket that cost less than $3. I couldn’t believe it too me so long to see the solution. Obviously, I can cut an inch out of the bucket and put it back together. This is my plan. I’ll put a shop vac inside the cabinet next to the bucket, and I’ll run a hose out to the lathe. I’ll have to cut intake and exhaust holes in the cabinet. Even with the holes, the cabinet should kill most of the vacuum noise.

I now have a 31-foot cord for my band saw. I’m considering using my finger brake to make a bracket to wind the cord on. I can mount it to the side of the saw. It would just be a long piece of 1″ steel strip bent up at the ends. I could weld two short bits of all-thread to it and run them through the saw’s case to a couple of nuts. If I welt all-thread to it, I won’t have bold heads sticking up and interfering with me when I try to wind the cord. Not that they would anyway, now that I think about it, since they would be in the center of the apparatus and the cord would wind around the outside.

Still, it would be slick.

I no longer have any excuse not to move my machines here. Tomorrow I need to call the rigger and get things going. I can’t wait to have them again. There are things I’ve wanted to do that required a mill, lathe, and compressor, and I’ve been stuck. Awful feeling.

I may also get a trailer. I’m considering getting one that holds 5500 pounds. It’s not too big and not too expensive, but I could put my Kubota on it and take it for service. I could also move a machine tool or a huge amount of personal property. The trailer I like has built-in ramps, strong enough to hold a 3500-pound tractor.

I’ll need to put a decent hitch on the Ford, and I may put a better one on the Dodge. Apparently, Dodge puts very bad hitches on Cummins-equipped trucks. I can install these things myself.

I considered making a trailer, and I can do it, but there are some things you should just buy. I might make a small one, though. You don’t always want a 16-footer behind you.

Once I get these things, plus the Harbor Freight lift I have my eye on, it will be hard to think of anything I really need. There will always be little things I can add, but I will have the essentials to do what I want.

Welding table. Forgot that.

Anyway, it won’t be like I’ll be making do, as I have been for so long.