Shop wiring and lighting

[basilisk]

I have been applying myself to getting the wiring installed in the shop, so far the only part completed is the 120V for outlets.

All ran in emt, with 2 gang handy box every ten feet around the perimeter, making it impossible to get more than 5 feet from 2 duplex outlets. They are even closer in some areas where high usage is likely. Making a total of 40 duplex outlets. I may put a row of drops down the center of the roofline in addition to wall outlets, they would be handy but also possibly in the way at times.

I despise having to look for a place to plug something up.

One 2 circuit 10ga 240v line is complete along the back wall to provide power to the bandsaw and planer, neither of which is in place or hooked up presently. They are currently living on my back porch, should be in their new home shortly.

I will run another double 240V circuit along part of the front wall one to provide power to a new table saw ( if I ever decide what to buy) and another just for future use.

I have ran many tens of thousands of feet of conduit in the distant past, but it took me a while to get back in the swing of bending conduit. Kinda like riding a bike, you never forget but it's a little shaky at first.

also left to do is two runs for 3 phase, presently I have 6 pieces of 3 phase equipment that will be powered by a rotary converter.

I've tried to stick with the rules on the wiring with the exception of GFI breakers, so it would fail inspection on that point.

Which brings us to lighting, I'm still using a strip of carnival lights for temporary lighting, which cosist of 25, 100 watt equivalent CFL bulbs, this works and is a lot of light but it looks like and is shit, time for permanent lighting.

I've pretty much settled on 6 low bay 400 watt metal halide. I considered 400 watt equiv led lights but just can't bear the expense right now, pay me now or pay me later. They are making mogul base leds that will screw in metal halide fixtures after bypassing the ballast, so hopefully the price of leds will come down by the time the metal halide fixtures fail. If all that happens I can replace them one at the time.

basilisk

[Ed Pawlowski]

In our warehouse we had metal halide and the power company paid us to take them out and replace them with 4 tube high efficiency fluorescent. The ones we had were 1000 watt and we are getting better light with less than 200 watts.

The old lights had bulbs that cost $100 too. Now, all four would cost about $16.

[Swingman]

Appears you've done a great job thus far.

I always put them in where they are required, figuring I'm not going to live forever and, third party inspections being a guarantee in this area prior to resell, it is one less thing I'll have to address for selling when I may not be able to do so easily. Problematic in their early stages, I have literally had no problems with GFCI receptacles/breakers in the shop the last few years.

Good plan ... looks like you're on the right track.

[woodchucker]

Same in the gym that I play volleyball in. It's also nice having the lights come on quickly rather than taking 10-15 to warm up.

[basilisk]

I disregarded fluorescents on two counts, the number of fixtures required, I've a bit of a lazy streak, rather hang 6 fixtures rather than 18 and for some inexplicable reason fluorescents have a very short life span here, doesn't seem to be a grounding issue as I have several more ground rods driven in than required and they are in high iron content soil. The voltage runs high here but not enough that it should be a problem, sometimes hitting 130v. Who knows what goes on with the power when no one is looking.

It is bad enough that the tought of keeping a bunch of fluorescents operational is daunting. Of course there is no guarantee that metal halide won't be plagued by the same problem, spend your money and take your chances.

basilisk

[basilisk]

Thanks for the kind words, it seem to take forever for me to finish anything, working 60 hours a week for someone else slows me down for some reason.

I've never really been sold on them from a practical stand point. I doubt they have ever saved anyone, except maybe the toaster in the bathtub crowd. I do have some in the kitchen and baths.

For the reasons you stated it makes sense to put them in up front.

[-MIKE-]

Keep in mind how lighting affects the hues in your finishes. Many artificial light sources make it next to impossible to see what your finish will actually look like in natural or normal household lighting. Fluorescent and halide being the worst offenders.

I spent the extra money on fluorescent tubes that give off light the color of an overcast day which is not too warm and not too cool, and certainly not that gross green of most fluorescent tubes.

[Larry Blanchard]

I use shop lights and have found that a combination of one "standard" cool white tube and one GE "kitchen and bath" tube (more red) come pretty close to house lighting with incandescents.

But incandescents are on their way out ...

[Ed Pawlowski]

No need for 18 fixtures. We replaced them one for one and have plenty of good light. We also have 6 tube fixtures in the production area. Bright as being outside on a sunny day.

As for the short life span, that is a different issue.

[woodchucker]

Not true, I had a pump that went bad in the pool area.. it was a cover pump. And it was fine on the gfci, then it started popping it. Clearly it could have saved my ass. Before I replaced the pump I ran a cord to a non-gfci ckt. I just made sure I unplugged it b4 doing any work there. Also when cutting concrete with an old metal cased circ saw, made sure it was in use, since I also used slight spraying of water to keep the dust down... while it didn't pop, it was nice knowing I had the protection.

[Lew Hodgett]

---------------------------------------------- "Ed Pawlowski" wrote:

------------------------------------------------------ Having designed and sold a lot of industrial lighting systems in a past life, will offer the following:

Metal halide is a good lamp source if you are an automotive dealership or a sports stadium.

Color rendition is good and the hours of operation are limited.

Metal halide is a POOR lamp source if you are an industrial area.

Metal halide has high initial lumen output; however, they have short useful life and high lumen depreciation.

Ed Pawlowski's suggestion of 4 tube high efficiency fluorescent luminaires is a good one.

Run 2 circuits to each fixture and you can easily have 2 level lighting.

Have fun.

Lew

[dadiOH]

You might want to consider something like this...

In one of my photography studios I got the light cords off the floor by stringing fine cable - 1/16th IIRC - wall to wall, tensioned a bit with small turnbuckles. There were six cables, three about 6 feet from each side of the 20' wide room, My electric cords went up one wall, then into a series of loops, each of which was attached to a nylon traveler (slide) on a cable. A short piece of coil cord was spliced into the end of each electric wire.

With this setup I could move any of the 6-8 lights to any place in the studio. I could also get them all out of the way. I could also just unplug a light and move it elsewhere as the end of the coil cord - when retracted - was a bit less than an arms reach above my head; when extended, tthe coil cords would reach (or nearly reach) the floor.

Worked for me, plan to do something similar in my shop, only 1-2 lines though.

[Bob La Londe]

You know I only ran 2 240V circuits to the back in my shop initially. One for the air compressor I still don't have to replace the CH roll around, and one for a table saw. Now I have 2 240V welders back there and a 230V CNC Mill, and will soon add another 230V CNC mill back there. Also maybe a large bed CNC router with a 230V spindle. I never thought in a million years I would have so much fabrication equipment in my shop. Lots of 120V outlets is fine, but plan a few extra 240V circuits as well. You never know.

[-MIKE-]

I wasn't even thinking about matching colors. I was thinking purely esthetics.

We are working in an art form and we naturally just see colors in our own minds as beautiful or not. That is drastically affected by light and is skewed by the hue, as it were. :-) In anything else we do in woodworking, all we need is *enough* light, the color doesn't matter. If we can see the shapes and textures we are making, that is all that matters. But with color, why start off at such a terrible disadvantage? In the long run, it's a drop in the bucket to get some decent colored lighting like you and I did.

Personally, I'm not going to check out the lighting in a home where something I build is going. If they have florescent lighting, that's their problem. *Every*thing in that room will be ugly. :-)

That's what always cracks me up about these home stores in a warehouse type setting with terrible lighting. Whether it's flooring and tile, or furniture, or whatever, even a beautiful product is going to look ugly under those terrible green and orange and yellow lights.

[basilisk]

Everthing that will use 240v is accounted for, except for a welding machine. I may go diesel for the welder as the machine I have now is a buzz box and not good for much.

Bridgeport, Leblond lathe, Barnes drill press, G&E shaper, metal saw and a stroke sander all run on 3 phase, none of which is run yet...

I also have another m-head bridgeport that has outlived its usefulness as a milling machine that will make a fine drill press for woodwork.

basilisk

[basilisk]

That's not a bad idea.

basilisk

[basilisk]

Indeed, my living room has a mix of CFL, Led and incandescent light, if you want to know what color something is you have to go outside.

It may be a moot point anyway, I was born without whatever it is that regulates color matching and color suitability.

basilisk

[krw]

Sure but think about how the tools are going to be used. There is little reason to have separate circuits for a table saw and shaper, for instance. I tilt in favor of more 120V circuits and fewer 220V (only so many slots in a box). I have mine wired with alternating outlets on two circuits and six (so far) 120V circuits. Right now, I only have two 220V circuits (1/tools, 1/dust collection). Lights, of course, are on their own circuits.

[basilisk]

Yep, being a one man shop there is only so much you can run at a time.

basilisk

[Swingman]

I used the "pink" crayon for coloring grass in coloring books until I learned how to read, but there's something about the lighting that grocery stores put above their produce, particularly the bananas, that offends my eye.