Outlets in the middle of a concrete floor

[Jim Kirkpatrick]

Jim, it'll be on top of an existing basement floor. No garage door, but I like the bucket idea!

Roger, I don't like the sound of conduit laying on top of the floor. Not only could you trip over it but it'll be a great place for dust to collect. What's wrong with overhead wiring with drop downs?

[Roger Warford]

It's a good question Jim. My thinking (though I don't claim it's good thinking!) was that drops from the ceiling would potentially get in the way as I swing lumber around. The port on the Jet single stage DC I have on the way is near the ground. So I thought I would run the DC ductwork (or PVC) near the ground at the level of the DC port, avoiding one bend. Under that I would run the conduit. I would arrange my tools around that blocking the path so I won't accidentally trip over the ductwork or conduit (see my post here that shows the layout I am planning).

[Rob Russell]

I relooked at your shop layout. It appears to me as if the pipe to jointer is right where you'd be walking everytime you finished jointing a board.

Is that correct?

[Jim Kirkpatrick]

I was flipping a house a couple of years ago and had a Delta contractors saw rigged up in basement. I wired some plugs near lally columns that worked great. If you dont have any columns, I think if you keep the drops near the tools, you'll be all set. My .02 would be to keep them overhead. You'll be thinking of me every time you have to shop vac the dust around the emt and DC duct!

[Fred Sotcher]

The floor receptacles are a great idea, I did the same thing in my shop. I might go a few steps further. I recommend that you pull wiring for both a 120 and a 240volt circuit. Things change and you might find the second voltage useful. You don't need to connect the wires at the lead, until you need them, but they are there if you do. Two other ideas. Along with the electrical conduit, run a 1/2 copper pipe for shop air. I also placed a 4 inch drain line that connects to my dust collector system. All this is easy to do at this point a very hard later.

Fred Sotcher

[Roger Warford]

Rob, you are right, it's a bit tight in there. I spent the day cleaning out the space and setting up some equipment - I think I'll be able to push the pipe and wiring back a foot or two hopefully creating enough space to work. I marked off the area and made a few test runs today on the jointer and it seemed to go okay.

Jim, there are no columns in the space. Did you find the columns got in your way?

Scott, good suggestions. I do plan on adding two 120V/20A outlets as well.

EDIT: Forgot to add that I spoke with a local inspector yesterday. He has very helpful and a fellow WW! He confirmed that the box would have to be supported by something other than the conduit.

[Samuel Brooks]

I went with ceiling mounted see attached pics. Mine setup is 120V but it could be 220V just as easy. I put in a standard 20A outlook then put in a large hook into the truss and used a zip-tie to hook the power cord so that it would not get pulled out by accident. I looked into Conduit but then I had to attach it to something and the inspector recommended that I get a locking plug .. $$$. When I showed him what I had come up with he though it was great and covered all code issues. I then added the 2nd drop down to run to my cut down table. After doing a project of moving between cut down with my easy-smart then going to the table saw for finish work, I got tired of switching my cables back and forth so I just added a 2nd hook and a 2nd cable. As you can see I was able to loop it out of the way when not in use. Since I have hanging ceiling fixtures I have to watch where I swing boards anyways so to hang it from the ceiling was not a big deal. Now I really like having power where I need it.

I am just waiting on an order from Penn State for Dust Collection transition connectors then I will also have a 6" run coming down from the ceiling at the same spot. I am really tired of walking over the 4" flex on the floor now. And if I do not leave it hooked up then I do not want to take the time to connect it for one use. It's just one cut .... 10 minutes later and 4 others that I realized that I also wanted to do before I changed the setup. .

Good Luck

Sam

100_1841.jpg
100_1842.jpg

[John Browne]

Frankly I wouldn't want anything on the floor to trip over or block machinery if I wanted to move it around. I'd rather drop a post part way down from the ceiling and put outlets on it--my shop has a 2nd floor above so there are 3 6x6 posts running down the middle--PITA for things like table saws or big assy tables but handy for mounting outlets--I put a 220 and 120 circuit on each of two of them. You could also do a drop on a cord reel from the ceiling.