My house was built in the 1960's and is "electrically challenged." Rewiring would be the optimal solution, except for the cost. ;-)
For now I'm trying to figure out if I can get a 220v dust collector without rewiring. (The service box is maxed.)
My shop is right next to the laundry room. I already unplug the washer and plug in a heavy duty extension cord to run my contractor saw -- I found out the saw and shop vac on the same circuit can trip the breaker halfway through ripping a 2"x4".
Any reason I couldn't build an extension cord to make use of the
220/110 of the dryer outlet, converting it to a standard 220 outlet for a dust collector? Or is this A Very Bad Idea (TM)?
It is not legal. Dryers, before 1996, were not required to have a separate neutral and ground. You will be sharing them and that is a bad idea. You also have the amperage problem.
If you can pull a new wire in why are we dancing around. Just put in a bigger breaker, pull in some fat 4 wire and put a sub panel to serve the dryer and your shop. We beat that subject to death a few days ago but we can hit the high points again if this is a possibility.
That reminds me of visiting the shop that belonged to the brother of a friend of mine. He had a rule: never plug white painted plugs into red sockets or vice versa --- see they were all 110V connectors but the red ones were wired 220V. He was very impressed that he a) saved all that money avoid spendy 220 plugs and b) could use regular old
110V extension cords anywhere. Well you can guess where this is going .... he plugs in two cords (one 110, one 220) and they are both orange and indistinguishable on the other end........ Some years later the building burned down and nobody knew quite why.
;-) There's a large time & effort difference between making a short extension cord & getting up in the attic where the the wild dust bunnies have free range. The last time I was up there I almost came through the ceiling -- 40 year old
1/2" 3-ply plywood doesn't like my 250+ lbs... I wanted to try "fast" & "cheap" first. ;-)
I just discovered this NG yesterday & I don't see the topic in my downloaded messages. Do you recall the title? I can google group for the info.
Wilson -- Your writing shows you know something about electricity. Let me as a question about dust collection system grounding. I've done enough internet searching and reading in books & magazines to know this is a bit of a religious issue. ;-) Suppose for arguements' sake I'm a member of the Grounders sect.
- A neighbor told me the grounding is "weak" in the houses in our 40 year old subdivision. - What good does it do to attach a grounding wire to the body of a double-insulated but no ground wire router? - Likewise, attaching to a TS that is grounded but not plugged in doesn't do any good. - If my DC isn't plugged in all the time it won't be grounded either. Is there any reason to not separately ground the DC ductwork, such as by driving a 6' copper rod in the garden outside the shop and running a wire to it?
The reason is this won't clear a ground fault. (trip the breaker) The ground has to be bonded to the center tap of the utility transformer. This is accomplished in your service panel via the main bonding jumper. A separately driven rod is required to be bonded to the service grounding system by the NEC.
What they are probably telling you is that some of your branch circuits don't have grounding conductors in the wiring method. There has not been a sifgnificant change in the code in reference to grounding the service in close to a century. Homes that were built to "GI Bill" or FHA standards after WWII should have a grounding conductor brought to the box but you still could have 2 prong receptacles. You can pigtail a ground out to a 3 prong receptacle if this is true. If the house was built to minimum code it may only have a 2 wire cable serving the branch circuits. The only fix in that case is to run supplimental grounding from the panel or to rerun the cable feeding the circuit.
So what is your opinion of this solution, quoted from
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Thanks.
-- Mark
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Brent Dugan was the Maintenance Supervisor/Plant Engineer for a large 'Meltblown' polypropylene manufacturer (oil sorbents) for 9 years. He shared his way to eliminate those nasty static shocks:
"Our product was plastic and our conveying systems, both air and mechanical were plastic. Polypropylene fibers traveling through 3" or 4" PVC piping creates massive amounts of static electricity. Our problem was so severe that we had sparks jumping 1 1/4" from our piping that would leave burn marks on your skin. Our employees dreaded working with the equipment. We tried all of the available methods you proposed and more; e.g., wire inside, wire outside, wrapped wire outside, etc. We spent quite a bit of my company's money to try and solve the problem with consultants and experts all to no avail.
I finally came up with a solution. It was so simple and inexpensive that you will not believe it. As you stated, static is electrons building on the surface of an object. Well, I solved the problem by sticking 2" wide aluminum foil tape to the outside and inside of the PVC piping and then grounding that tape. Putting the tape on the outside of the piping was easy, just stick it on. Unfortunately that was not enough and I also had to put a strip of tape on the inside of the duct.
Putting the tape on the inside was an interesting challenge. I wanted my tape inside and tape outside to end up right next to each other with just the PVC in between so I could use a screw and nut to ground the two layers together. I was only able to make the aluminum tape with a backing like double-sided tape work on the inside. To do so I started by sticking the aluminum tape to the bottom edge of the PVC pipe. Slightly peel the backing and adhere the aluminum tape to the end of a piece of 1/2" emt, conduit pipe, or other long rod. Feed the aluminum tape through the pipe as you unroll it from the roll. When you have the tape through the PVC, stick the aluminum tape to the end of the PVC pipe. Now 'tape' the backing to the rod then stretch the aluminum tape tightly angling it towards the top of the PVC piping (12 o'clock position). This keeps it from sticking prematurely. Now gently pull the rod out of the PVC which also removes the 'backing strip' off as you go. Keeping the aluminum tape stretched tightly lower it to the bottom side of the PVC pipe. To smooth it onto the inside I slipped in a longer piece of PVC and simply rolled that pipe inside to "iron" the aluminum tape down.
Having the tape back to back made grounding easy. I drilled a hole near each pipe end through both layers of foil, inserted a 1/4-20 screw from the inside of the pipe, put on a nut to make a good circuit, then connected each section using 14 gauge wire. I connected each end with alligator clips to another strip of the aluminum tape adhered to the concrete floor. That totally eliminated the massive static electrical discharges and earned me a bonus!"
Apples and oranges. Grounding static electricity is a different animal than bonding against electrical faults. As he says, you can ground out a static charge in the manner he described.
I am usually slow to jump on the "you need a sub panel" band wagon but from what you have said here (out of circuits, questionable grounding etc) this may be the best long term option. Then you would have the ability to install the circuits you need in your shop and be assured that the grounding pins of your tools are actually grounded.
If you are still going with the "extension cord" route, give me the name plate rating of your dust collector (voltage, HP and FLA) and I will tell you how to set it up. The answer will probably start another fight ;-) If your dust collector is 1HP or less at 240v you can probably use a 14ga cord ... on that 30a breaker and still be within the code. (using the NEC article
I'm working on the same problem -- only have a 120V/15A service into a detached garage and picked up a nearly new 3hp unisaw at an estate sale for next to nothing .
I made up a 'cheater' cord to run from the range receptacle in the house to the saw in the garage until I upgrade the electrical service out there.
I'm assuming you've got a dryer receptacle on the wall for the standard four-prong dryer plug. Have a look to make sure it has the separate ground back to the panel.
Get a spare dryer cord, a receptacle that matches the plug on your DC, and a steel box, matching cover plate, and box connector, if necessary.
The dryer plug has the U-shaped ground prong, two straight prongs on the sides for the main lines, and a L-shaped prong opposite the ground for the neutral line.
Your 240V DC doesn't need the neutral line. Use a hack saw to cut off the latter prong at the face of the plug. Cut the white wire off at the other end of the cord. Then connect the two lines and ground wire to the proper terminals on the receptacle for the DC plug. Do the wiring inside a metal box. Run a jumper inside the box to ground it, too.
The circuit is good for 30 amps, which is good for 5 hp or so. The potential issue is that if your motor overloads, and doesn't have its own overload protection, it'll cook long before the breaker trips. This shouldn't be a problem on a dust collector, however.
In Canada, separate ground wires were mandated sometime in the late '50s or early '60s. Outlets for ranges and dryers were made law in 1970, at the same time they required all NMD cable to have 90 degree celsius insulation, 60 degree insulation was dropped. US was much later in requiring these standards.
I currently have a Sears 110v shop vac which doesn't do too bad with my sealed-up contractor saw and router table. But it would be overwhelmed by what I hope to be able to afford in a little while, a joiner & planer. Plus, I've been reading about the health hazards of micro-sized sawdust, and according to the site below 800CFM is needed to suck up all the little nasties.
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the 800 CFM DS's need 220, which I don't have in the shop yet...
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