Rewiring a Delta CS for 220V

[Steven J Corpstein]

I have a small amount of electrical knowledge and although I'm reasonably confident I did the wiring right, I thought I'd run it by you guys and gals. I reconnected the internal wiring on my Delta CS per the schematic on the motor and then replaced the 110V pigtail with new wire and plug. Since it only has 3 wires, I used the black for line 1, the white became line 2 (I painted the end red), and the green stayed as the ground (I painted the end white). In the breaker box, I have a 20A breaker with line 1 - black, line 2 - red, and the white goes to the common ground in the box. Does any of this make sense?

[Kevin Gerstenecker]

If you have a Double Pole Breaker in your Panel, you are all set..............connect line one to one pole of the breaker, connect line 2 to the other pole of the breaker, and connect the ground to the grounding terminal in your Breaker Panel. You should be all set! One thing though, don't use the color white to designate a ground wire..........ground is ALWAYS Green. I realize that you may know that the white wire is your ground, but the next guy may not! Better to get into the practice of using Green for ground, than to be sorry later. (By the way, in some panels, the Neutral Bar is used for the grounding bar also.)

[Steven J Corpstein]

Thanks for your reply, but I have another question. Maybe to clarify my use of the green, I used the green only in the pigtail as the ground. In the breaker panel and outlet, the 2 hot leads are red and black with the white being ground. The pigtail and motor wires had white, green and black, so I used the green for ground, white (which I painted red) and black for the line sides. Is this per spec or are you saying they should be different?

[Kevin Gerstenecker]

Sounds like you have it correct. You are wired correct from the Recepticle, with the Red & Black being the Hot Leads, and the White being grounded. With the Pigtail and Motor, you are OK there also. Use the Black and White in the Pigtail for the Hot Leads to the Motor, for connection to L1 & L2 on the Motor Terminals. As far as the NEC goes, any color CAN be ground, but Green can ONLY be ground. That is why you rarely, (or never) see Green used as a Feeder, or Hot Wire in a Circuit, as far as Residential or Commercial AC Wiring is concerned. As you have described it, you are wired correctly for a 220V circuit. Just make sure that the Pigtail Wire is a large enough gauge wire for your 20 Amp Breaker. (The wire should be #12 for the 20A circuit. You may want to check and see what the manufacturer requires as far as Breaker Capacity for the 220V circuit for the saw. Some 220V applications use 15 Amp, some 20 Amp. I would imagine the saw would draw somewhere around 5 amps or so at 220V, so you should be ok with the Pigtail that came with the saw.) The nice thing about 220V options on your Woodworking equipment is the lower Amp Draw. Personally, on my Equipment, if it can be wired 220V, it is. Have fun,and be safe with the Electricity...........it bites HARD! ;)