Electrical 220 circuit question

[Steve Roxberg]

I am running a new 220 volt circuit for my table saw.

I am running EMT, and it will be a 20 amp circuit.

I have 12AWG stranded wire in spools and I have black, white, and green.

A normal circuit would be Red, Black and Green as ground.

I have seen in other postings and in books that you can tape a white wire with black electrical tape to identify it as hot. Can I just run two black how wires, and one green ground?

The ground wire goes to the receptacle, do I need to pigtail it to the box as well, or is the box already grounded by being metal EMT?

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Steve...I'm not an electrician......but 20 gauge seems awfully small for a table saw.....I'm not up to date on the current capability differences between stranded and solid wires.....but still I'd be a little skeptical that 20 gauge would handle the normal table saw. You might want to check with someone......

[Justin King]

To answer your questions:
1. Yes, you can run 2 blacks for the hot wires. The reason that a white wire is taped is so that it cannot be confused as a neutral.

2. You could use the EMT as the ground for the box; however, the safer practice would be to ground the box as well. It really doesn't take but an extra 60 seconds. That 60 seconds is not worth losing your life over.

NOW THEN, I hope that you had a type-o when you stated that you plan to use 20g wire for a 20 amp run. That should be 12g wire at a minimum.

J

[Steve Roxberg]

Sorry, yes it is 12AWG, not 20.

I'll have to quickly add the pigtail, thanks for confirming.