Disclaimer:
It will be quickly evident that I know nothing about electrical wiring. For that reason, I've never attempted to add outlets or lighting to my own home. I thought this little project might be different. With that, off we go...
Background:
My shop is our third car garage. I have one 115V outlet and one 230V outlet (which doesn't get used). Woodworking machines which I use with some regularity are Delta 14" band saw, Delta floor drill press, Delta 6" jointer, Delta 10" contractor's table saw, 10" Unisaw, Craftsman grinder, Makita angle grinder, California Air Tools air compressor and a Dewalt DW735 planer. I use a vacuum and occasionally extra lighting. I use the supplied outlet in the shop for this. I am generally only using one machine at a time and most of the time there isn't anything beyond the radio using that 115V outlet. All my machines are mobile and get wheeled out when needed and put back in place when finished.
The project:
It gets tiring constantly moving my extension cord from one end of the shop to the other or out in the driveway depending upon what tool I'm using. I saw this "Extension cord from hell" and thought that could be useful in my shop. I took a 12G 50' extension cord and cut the plug off at 10'. I put together these three metal boxes (don't know the official name) with four outlets facing up on each box. That initial length at 10', 9' to the next box, last section at 10' and then the female end of the original extension cord. Each box has an upstream cable and a downstream cable on either end of the box. The two double electrical outlets are wired with appx 6" 12G wire as follows:
- white jumper wire connected via silver screws from double plug "A" to double plug "B",
- black jumper wire connected via gold screws from double plug "A" to double plug "B",
- upstream cable white wire connected to nearest double plug "A" and silver screw,
- upstream cable black wire connected to double plug "A" and gold screw,
- downstream cable white wire connected to double plug "B" and silver screw,
- downstream cable black wire connected to double plug "B" and gold screw,
- upstream cable green connected to green ground screw on double plug "A" along with one end of green jumper,
- downstream cable green wire connected to green ground screw on double plug "B" along with other end of green jumper
Why I need help:
I suspect that ought to be about as clear as mud if you're still reading. I've finished two of the three 4-way outlets. As I get close to finishing I'm thinking about testing it prior to plugging it in. I didn't read the entire article to make this "extension cord from hell" because if I had I would have seen that it really skimps at the point of telling you how to test the connections using a digital multimeter. I have an older Sperry CM-350A (see pic). I've never used it. I really need help to test the connections before I plug it in. I've read the manual and that was less helpful than reading the project article. The guys basically says "check for shorts between the conductors on the cable. Neutral to ground, neutral to hot, and hot to ground. If you find any shorts fix and recheck." He then says "Check that the metal boxes are connected ONLY to the ground conductor! YOUR SAFETY DEPENDS ON THIS CHECK!" Sounds like he should have mentioned this first but what do I know. So at this point I don't know how to do any of these checks with my Sperry digital multimeter and I'm hoping someone can help me to do that.
If anyone made it this far all I can say is thank you. I appreciate any help anyone can provide. I'll be happy to provide any pics or answer any questions.
Thanks!
Mike
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