Hating electrical work

[Brian McInturff]

Well, I said the hell with it. after pulling the wire up into the attic I decided to drill a hole over where the main panel is. That was some hard wood. Dry as a bone(hope the house never burns). Took 4 trips into the attic crawl space(less than 4 feet clearance where the peak is) with drills and bits but I finally got through the header. I was able to push the wire(4/6) down beside the main panel and after diligently trying, was able to pull the wire through a side knock out. Not the easy thing to do by yourself. Now all I have to do is wire the breaker box that I'm mounting on the outside of the house(as a disconnect for the shop, and then connect it up to the main panel breaker.Guess I'll finish that up tomorrow as it took me about 6 hours straight just to get this far. Now I know why I didn't want to be an electrician.

Hopefully I'll be spinning wood sometime tomorrow afternoon!!

[Tony Wheeler]

I probably should not say anything but from what you discribed in your post Im not sure what you are doing is correct. If you are taking wire to power a shop you should have and breaker in main pannel say 100 amps and then another main breaker in your shop and be sure to put in a ground rod connected to the breaker box in your shop. any way that is how I was instructed by a electrian when I built my shop this year

[John Hart]

Brian...you have my sympathy. When I bought this Amish house...I told Glenn Clabo who was visiting, "Sure....I can wire that sucker up in a week." Three months later....I had it operational...barely. Tired...hot...beat up....sick of running wire...pounding staples...drilling holes....breathing insulation.... Here we are a year later and I still have a bunch of outlets and switches to run.

You have my sympathy.


.....But...I did the shop first!!!;):D

[Tom Sherman]

John you have your priorities in the right order don't let your LOYL see this.

[Brian McInturff]

Tony,
I already had 110 in the shop. Had 220 but lost that circuit because it wasn't done correctly. This is a dedicated 220 circuit to power the lathe, air compressor and bandsaw. The amperage will be fine. It's going to be on a 60amp breaker and we checked the max load that would be on the circuit at one time, also figuring in the length of the line for voltage drop. Thanks for thinking of that though. Iwon't go into the embarrassing situation that caused me to lose my 220 line in the first place, other than to say, don't wire it into the condensor disconnect breaker. OOPS!!!

[robert hainstock]

most ubilding codes allow the home owner to do his or her own wiring. Having crawled around in many tight places to do just that, you have my sympathy. aathink ground fault, and get advice from the local building supplier.
Bob