Electricity Shortage

[Kyle Evans]

So, I just moved into a new place and am using the garage for my shop until I can find something more permanent. We are renting for now, and are looking at staying up to a year. The problem is that the garage only had one outlet, and the 220 outlet isnt in the garage, and I need another 10 ft to get to it in the utility room. I dont really want to have to put money into this house so I was wondering if anyone had any ideas as to what I could do. Ive read that extension cords arent very good for your tools, and wears out the motors, but Im not sure how legit that is. I have a powermatic 6" jointer, makita mitersaw(12"), Makita 12" planer, routertable, Delta 18" DP, and a makita big bore aircompressor as my main "wannabe" stationary tools wired for 120, and my PM2000 table saw wired for 220. Thanks

[Rod Sheridan]

Hi Kyle, undersized extension cords are bad for your tools, prperly sized cords are fine for reasonable distances. 10 feet is effectively noyhing as far as your tools are concerned......Regards, Rod.

[David G Baker]

I use extension cords all of the time but never use anything but #10 wire or larger depending on the tool. I also violate code on occasion by using #6 Romex for an extension cord but I don't leave rolled out. If I need to run a cord for a long distance I do the math to find out the size wire I need for the distance. Contractors use extension cords all of the time for their tools. Larger wire extension cords are not cheap, you can find them in the generator or RV section of the big box stores.

[Matt Day]

I've been in a similar situation and ran a Romex extension cord to the dryer outlet and it was fine. I've also had a shop where I had to run x-cords from other rooms into my shop for 120 since it had no outlets in it. Lots of x-cords and power strips but a one man shop doesn't run more than a tool at a time (and DC, which would occasionally trip the breaker). If your one outlet is 15A, you may be tripping the breaker.

[Jerome Stanek]

A long run circut is just a long extension cord.

[Greg Cuetara]

I have a few air conditioner extension cords which are about 10' long that I use for most of my roaming tools in my basement and that works great.

[ian maybury]

As above. The issue is to ensure that the cable used is sized large enough (bearing in mind the likely total load) so that it doesn't produce too much of a voltage drop.

ian

[Kyle Evans]

Thanks for your responses. Right now the plan is to buy a 10g extension cord, cut off a 15ft piece and put 220v plugs on it. That will be for my table saw (PM2000 5hp 1ph), and use the other piece for all my other tools that are 110. Just learning my way into the world of woodworking... Making sawdust is only half the battle I guess.

Kyle

[Sean Kinn]

Kyle - For various reasons I have been running my 220v tools from a 10g "extension cord" connected to the dryer outlet for many years. I'm finally about to install my permanent 220 circuits to accommodate my new machinery, and I'm going to cut up the 10g cord to make nice long cords for each of my machines to connect to the new permanent wall outlets.

[keith jensen]

My experience with only needing 10' means that I really needed more like 18-20', just my personal experience though. Once you make the cord, you can't make it longer (easily).

[Ryan Hellmer]

I would do 2 things, size the wire properly for the outlet it plugs into (utility room dryer outlets are usually 30 amp). Secondly, I would make the cord twice as long as you think you'll need. Building cords yourself is really easy and fairly cost effective. Look for a wholesaler in your area (Kriz-Davis, Stanion, etc.) as they are usually way cheaper than BORG's and, in my experience, pretty friendly with their measurements (I recently bought some 10/3 w/ ground, asked for 16 ft, paid for 16 ft, got 23 ft).

Ryan

[Alex Stace]

possibly check RV supply stores for some good heavy extension cord for 220