I realize this isn't exactly a woodworking question, but when I asked about 220 V wiring for my shed in an earlier thread a lot of electricians came out of the 'woodwork'.
So. I now have 220 V in my shed for my Walker Turner table saw. I noticed that the plug from the saw only has two wires. The ground is not connected. My shed has a ground stake. Should I run the ground wire to the saw? It certainly has a whooping iron chasis. Should I not do this?
(For those of you who helped me the last time, I finally decided to get an electrician to wire it. He took the 220V line from my 30 amp circuit for the house drier (I have a gas drier, so I don't use it), ran #10 wires out to a 30 amp breaker panel in the shed, split out two 110V circuits and a 20 amp
220v and put in a ground stake. This took him
6 hours. It would have taken me about 2 months).
A ground is never a bad idea. I would add one. I am not familiar with that TS, so not sure how you would add it. Sure someone here can give you some help with adding the ground.
But I wired my 220 TS 10 years ago. Mine has 3 wires. 2 leads and a neutral, not a ground. Are you sure yours is not wired for 110? From what I understand more modern wiring set ups are 4 wire. 2 leads, a neutral and a ground.
Might want to consult a qualified electrician on the matter.
No, there is no neutral for a 220 (US, not Brit); the third conductgor is a ground. You're confusing the use of the ground as neutral for the
110V circuit of a 3-wire dual voltage hookup (electric range range/dryer for example) as making it a neutral--it isn't.
Again, that's only for dual-use--the TS doesn't have the 110V load so no need. Recent NEC requires the neutral rather than shared but again there's no neutral for 220V only.
OP did have the circuit run by an electrician he says -- as somebody else noted, all he needs is a 3-wire cordset to update the old 2-wire one in the most convenient manner to add the ground.
That is right. You only need a neutral when you need dual voltage as in a dryer or stove. 240V (no longer 220 volt) only equipment such as motors only need the two hot wires and a ground. Use the specific plug and receptical for 240 volt and the rated amperage, better still, use a twist lock plug and receptical (again the correct type for the voltage and amperage) if the wire trails across the floor so that it doesn't get pulled out.
OKay. Thanks everybody. The way it is now is that there is a long extension cord (two wire with ground) going to a short cord from the saw (two wire). I can just replace the two wire cord with a three wire and hook the ground to some appropriate piece of iron on the saw top.
Hey It is hard to tell what the voltage is any more. LOL. 2 weeks ago "after" having 3 new leads run underground to my home, I lost electricity in
1/2 of my house and had no 240? ;!) I started having issues with lights diming.
I used a volt meter to check the voltage on the side of the house that I had previousely been dead and got 105 volts on about half the recepticals. The other half showed 138 volts.
The common neutral that was dedicated to my house and 3 neighbors had rusted and was causing the dimming problem for all of us. The light company came out and replaced the "thang" that attached the neutrals to the 4 houses.
Every thing went back to 122 volts after the repair.
I'd _strongly_ suggest (and maybe it's what you're saying) get rid of the extension cord entirely and put an appropriately-sized cord on the saw that is sufficient in length.
As for the ground connection, there should be a suitable grounding location in the box where the cord is attached on the machine or very near there that would be suitable and make for a neat installation.
Again, note that the ground conductor is simply that -- it serves no operational electrical function; it's only a safety ground.
Bad neutral is different that my reference altho can be entertaining set of symptoms (unfortunately, which may also turn into expensive)...
I've seen "normal" anywhere from 107V - 130V as pretty common just depending on where on a line and how far from distribution transformer a run is. Perhaps not as much variation common in residential/metro areas that don't cover such long distances w/ individual or very few loads as see out here...
...
BTW, on that 240V circuit, I'd presume it is more than likely ok but it might not hurt to double check did actually hook the ground conductor to the ground buss in the box rather than to the neutral buss if really were thinking neutral as opposed to ground way back then...nothing is going to happen but it really ought to be on ground, not neutral per Code.
I'm a bit confused. All of you are correctly worried about the ground etc... Doesn't it bother anybody that the electrician ran a #10 wire to the shop for a 30 amp circuit? I thought #10 was for 20 amps and #8 was the minimum for 30 amps. Am I wrong about that??
------------------------------------------------- I'm a bit confused. All of you are correctly worried about the ground etc... Doesn't it bother anybody that the electrician ran a #10 wire to the shop for a 30 amp circuit? I thought #10 was for 20 amps and #8 was the minimum for 30 amps. Am I wrong about that??
--------------------------------------
It's a function of ambient temperature.
For normal ambient temperatures, 10AWG is rated 30 for amp service; however, a 30 amp circuit in a panel board will only handle 24 amps on a continuous basis. (80% rule).
Depending on length of run, for the feeder one might choose to bump up a size to 8 to minimize voltage drop but the #10 is adequate for the 30A breaker (assuming the 'lektrishun followed the rules on conduit size, etc., etc., etc., ... which one would presume would have done).
Hell, you really don't _need_ no stinking plug! :)
... ask any South o' the Border carpenter on a job site, who will routinely strip 1" off two leads of an extension cord and stick'em straight into the female receptacle on the t-pole (or the dryer plug in the utility room which is usually the first thing powered in new construction), to power 220/240 equipment.
Floor finishers are really bad about it because most of those big floor sanders require 220/240, and they never seem to carry adapters.
I think this came out of the old FAQ here, or maybe Lew posted it years ago?
Wire size is determined by the load computed for the branch circuit. The load tells you the size of wire to use and the size of the overcurrent protection to use. Use only 80% of the maximum current capacity of the wire and the overcurrent protection (breaker or fuse).
Loss of one hot at the breaker panel can also be entertaining, although generally not as destructive. I've had that happen once or twice, mainly at a house with an older distribution panel that used individual cartridge fuses for the main rather than a ganged circuit breaker. Have one wear out or go pop or whatever, and suddenly you have one phase powered normally, and one phase powered through any 220V things that happen to be on--mainly the water heater, in my case. Small loads worked fine on that leg, but anything that drew any current would cause the voltage to go down dramatically. The microwave clock, for instance, ran fine, until actual cooking was attempted....
It depends where you're talking about checking. There is one point in the system, typically at the main disconnect (the main breaker box), where neutral and ground are bonded together, and at that point the neutral buss is the ground buss and vice-versa.
For separate outbuildings, I think (but I'm not sure about this, not being an electrician) the usual practice is to have a separate ground rod and bond that to the neutral bus at the outbuilding's main panel, omitting a separate safety ground wire between the buildings. In other words, the outbuilding is wired as though it were an isolated installation, not as a subpanel in the main building. In this case, for the main panel in the outbuilding, neutral and ground would again share the same bus bar(s). Any difference in ground potential between the house ground and the outbuilding ground would, of course, result in a current flow over the neutral wire; the assumption, I guess, is that there shouldn't be a large potential difference and hence not too great of a current flow.
That's not quite complete; you MUST connect the ground wire to the box with the on/off switch, and the frame of the motor, and you can then (if you want) bond the motor or switch to the tablesaw top and/or frame.
HomeOwnersHub website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here.
All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.