220V Tools & Extension Cords

[Wayne Cannon]

I second the suggestions to buy ready-made 12-2 cords and replace the ends. The existing ends are cheap, even for 220 V.

Also for the suggestion to drop from the ceiling instead of running along the floor. Use a hanging strain relief or, in my case, a retractable cord reel ($$, but worth it) so the cords remain handy, but out of the way when used for cars. Don't keep all the extra cord on a reel that's dedicated, e.g. for your table saw. Cut it to only the length you will need and avoid the extra voltage drop of the long cord.

Don't hard-wire the fixed end of your cord -- use a plug and receptacle; otherwise your cord picks up a bunch of additional code restrictions.

[Bruce King]

Extension cords are not to be used on a permanent situation except tools that don’t run for hours at a time. 5hp tools really should have an extension cord built from appropriate size wire and quality ends.

[Rob Sack]

Always use extension cords with larger gauges than needed. Many power tools draw momentarily many more amps on start up than they are actually rated My air compressor, rated at 22.5 amps at 240 volts, actually drawers for less than a second on startup over 100 amps. I also use a whole house vacuum unit for my panel router. It's rated for 25 amps at 120 volts. When measured with a meter, it draws over 50 amps on start up. I originally had it on a 30 amp - 120 volt breaker with 10 gauge wire. It eventually cooked the breaker and fried the lug on the panel. I am re-wiring the circuit with a 50 amp breaker and no. 6 wires.

[Aaron Rosenthal]

You're building a home, and the electrician has to visit anyway. When I had my sparkie wire up my garage/shop, we ran a sub panel and he wired 110 and 220 into both the walls and the ceiling.
Life saver! Short drops to the saw, bandsaw and dust collector, plus lots of outlets for portable tools.

[Chris Hachet]

I run both my bandsaw 220v and my SawStop pcs on an extension cord.. I have never had an issue

In a one man two car garage shop, this is how I run two planers, two table saws, jopinter, lathe, 220 bandsaw, etc. The benifit of doing it this way is that at the end of the day you can walk away knowing everything is de energized by pulling one plug. I don't like leaving amchines energized in my shop.

Chris

[Chris Hachet]

Always use extension cords with larger gauges than needed. Many power tools draw momentarily many more amps on start up than they are actually rated My air compressor, rated at 22.5 amps at 240 volts, actually drawers for less than a second on startup over 100 amps. I also use a whole house vacuum unit for my panel router. It's rated for 25 amps at 120 volts. When measured with a meter, it draws over 50 amps on start up. I originally had it on a 30 amp - 120 volt breaker with 10 gauge wire. It eventually cooked the breaker and fried the lug on the panel. I am re-wiring the circuit with a 50 amp breaker and no. 6 wires.

I have a friend with an OWWM 24 inch jointer that pulls 90 Amps on startup, startup current is nuts on some motors.

[Chris Hachet]

You're building a home, and the electrician has to visit anyway. When I had my sparkie wire up my garage/shop, we ran a sub panel and he wired 110 and 220 into both the walls and the ceiling.
Life saver! Short drops to the saw, bandsaw and dust collector, plus lots of outlets for portable tools.

This is my eventual goal.

[Frank Pratt]

I have a friend with an OWWM 24 inch jointer that pulls 90 Amps on startup, startup current is nuts on some motors.

Startup current on induction motors is commonly 10X FLA. If you put a good meter on it, I bet you'd see that it draws a lot more than 90A

[Bob Hinden]

Folks - thanks for the great replies. Now I feel confident that using some 12/3 extension cables will be OK.

Regards, Jim

That's what I do as well.

[Alex Zeller]

You can buy wire at the big box stores. My suggestion is to use SOOW over SJOOW. The "J" has a thinner cover on the wires (and is only rated for 300 volts). It's not the voltage rating but the durability of the wire itself. If you are sure you are never going to run over it with a mobile base or damage it in another way then the "J" would work. The last time I bought cord from the blue store they gave me 6 gauge, not the 12 I asked for. It felt heavy but I just threw it in the cart. It wasn't until I got home that I realized while trying to strip the wires that they were a lot fatter than they should be. But it makes for a nice 25' 40 amp extension cord.