Connecting #10 wires

[Dave Norris]

Howdy Everyone,
Here’s my situation: I have three 240 v. circuits in my garage. One is dedicated to the dust collector, one is dedicated to the air compressor, and one is the multipurpose circuit that I run the TS, planer, shaper, and jointer from. My problem is that whenever I want to run the TS after just jointing a board, I need to unplug the jointer and plug in the TS. Then if I want to run the shaper, it’s unplug the TS and plug in the shaper. I’m a one man shop, so I only ever run one of the wood working machines at a time. The DC and compressor are separate circuits because sometimes I run them at the same time as the ww machines. What I’d like to do is create a series of outlets so that each ww machine has it’s own plug and I don’t need to constantly plug and unplug.

I was thinking a junction box joining the “feed” wire (#10 wire) to four other “outlet” wires (also #10), then I’d put an outlet on each one. Obviously a wire nut isn’t going to bind five #10 wires together. Whats’s the best way to pull this off? A copper collar (don’t know the real name) crimped onto all the wires, then taped up? That doesn’t seem like a real good solution, but maybe that’s how it’s done?

[Brian J Holmes]

For a normal 120v circuit these would normally be connected in series with each other. i.e. source wire to first plug, first plug to second plug, second to third etc..

If you were going to do this you'd wire nut the feed black wire with the black wire going to the second plug and a small pigtail to go to the actual outlet in the first box then repeat for the rest of the outlets and the other color wires.

If the "series" wiring doesn't work then you could do it this way, feed wire nutted together with 1 other outlet wire and a pigtail (total three wires in nut) then the pigtail would go to the next wire nut and be combined with the remaining two outlet wires.

Having said all that I really don't like the idea of multiple wired outlets on a single 220v circuit you may be aware of how they are wired and never plan to use more than one machine on that circuit at once but some future owner of your house may not or someone in your household may not and attempt to run multiple devices off that one circuit.

Technically it would work but it wouldn't be electrical best practices and may violate code.

[Von Bickley]

Dave,

Your best choice would be a spit bolt connector. You can find them at your local electrical supply house. Lowe's or Home Depot may have them....

Tighten them up and tape with some good electrical tape.

[Anthony Whitesell]

It is actually poor practice in the electrical world to run from one outlet directly to another.

The best practice, more expensive, and most flexible is to run a main line from the breaker box to the furthest outlet and then make drops (inside junction boxes of course, which is where the extra expense is) to the intermediate outlets. When you run the main line be sure to leave 8-10 inches of slack in the line for each drop. This way you are only ever dealing with wire nutting 3 wires at once.

[Rob Russell]

You can get wire nuts that are rated to join (5) #10 together. I have some "big blue" 3M nuts that are rated for 5 or 6 #12, don't remember how many #10's.

[Travis Lavallee]

I just wanted to make the point that you will NOT be wiring these in SERIES if you want them to work properly. Wiring something in series is not the terminology for this type of connection, even if it makes sense to you to use it like that. What you can do is (if your junction boxes are large enough) is to pigtail your supply, outfeed, and outlet wires together at each junction box as you would connect the outlets on a wall in a regular branch circuit.

The only problem that would occur (assuming all wiring, breakers, etc.) if multiple machines were turned on at the same time is the breaker overloading and tripping. This can happen on a plain old 120V branch circuit as well, so there is no big danger here (as long as breaker is sized to wire).

On a side note, why does it seem that when the conversion from 120 to 240 is made, people also assume you must increase the wire size?

[Brian J Holmes]

I just wanted to make the point that you will NOT be wiring these in SERIES if you want them to work properly.

That's why I explained what I meant, I know electrically speaking it's not a series connection, in fact wiring devices won't let you connect a series circuit. But I couldn't come up with a better way to describe the source-to-outlet-to-outlet etc wiring type.

[Chris Padilla]

Technically, everything is in parallel.

[Tom Veatch]

...Having said all that I really don't like the idea of multiple wired outlets on a single 220v circuit you may be aware of how they are wired and never plan to use more than one machine on that circuit at once but some future owner of your house may not or someone in your household may not and attempt to run multiple devices off that one circuit.

Not sure I understand your reasoning there. With 10ga wire it's probably a 30amp circuit which, depending on the individual amperage draws, could probably run all the listed machines simultaneously.

My entire shop is wired with 220v circuits, each with multiple outlets, done by licensed electricians and approved by the inspectors. It's no more poor practice or a code violation to have multiple outlets on a 220v circuit than it is to have multiple outlets on a 110v circuit.

[Brian J Holmes]

My entire shop is wired with 220v circuits, each with multiple outlets, done by licensed electricians and approved by the inspectors. It's no more poor practice or a code violation to have multiple outlets on a 220v circuit than it is to have multiple outlets on a 110v circuit.

fair enough, my comment was mostly to check local codes

[Rob Russell]

Travis actually brings up a good point. Why #10? Is this a 30 amp circuit or did you just upsize the wire a gauge?

[Anthony Whitesell]

Techinically you're all correct.

But you have to admit the running from the breaker box down the wall to an outlet, back up the wall, down to another outlet, back up the wall, etc LOOKS like the outlets are in series. Though not against code, most building inspectors frown on that practice.

[Brad Peterson]

Howdy Everyone,
Here’s my situation: I have three 240 v. circuits in my garage. One is dedicated to the dust collector, one is dedicated to the air compressor, and one is the multipurpose circuit that I run the TS, planer, shaper, and jointer from. My problem is that whenever I want to run the TS after just jointing a board, I need to unplug the jointer and plug in the TS. Then if I want to run the shaper, it’s unplug the TS and plug in the shaper. I’m a one man shop, so I only ever run one of the wood working machines at a time. The DC and compressor are separate circuits because sometimes I run them at the same time as the ww machines. What I’d like to do is create a series of outlets so that each ww machine has it’s own plug and I don’t need to constantly plug and unplug.

I was thinking a junction box joining the “feed” wire (#10 wire) to four other “outlet” wires (also #10), then I’d put an outlet on each one. Obviously a wire nut isn’t going to bind five #10 wires together. Whats’s the best way to pull this off? A copper collar (don’t know the real name) crimped onto all the wires, then taped up? That doesn’t seem like a real good solution, but maybe that’s how it’s done?

I did (planned from the beginning and executed) exactly this with fine results. I have 5 240v circuits in my shop. Two are dedicated to a single outlet each at the back of the shop (cyclone and compressor), and three have two outlets each, one on each side of the shop. So I have machine as well as layout variability. I pigtailed each wire at the first outlet on the shared circuits and continued the run on to the second outlet. Works great and saved on space in the now full breaker box.

And I ran 10ga because I wanted to be prepared for that 30A tool, whether it ever came along or not. While the increase in cost was probably around $150-$200 for my shop (1125 sq ft), the peace of mind was worth it to me.

[Dave Norris]

My top 3 reasons for #10 wire...

3. I wanted to go heavy in case I added bigger machines on down the road (not sure what they would be, but you never know) or I got cocky and wanted to try to run two at once,

2. I had just read an article about the #1 reason for motor failure was too little current to the motor

and the number one reason I went with #10 wire...

1. My dad had a big roll of it he gave me

[Jim Becker]

Number one takes the prize every time...