Tuesday, June 14, 2011

upgrading the power part one

The lighting in my new garage is great, but the power...well a solitary outlet was never going to be good enough for what I need! I had a similar paucity of outlets in my last garage, so I am at least practiced in adding electrical infrastructure. (Note: I'm posting this stuff because I want to keep my blog going while my Mustang project is on downtime, but, if you're thinking of doing your own re-wiring, there are many better resources out there).


I started off by securing a long piece of cable close to the outlet I will be tapping into, and then threading the cable behind the water heater, through the back of one of the cabinets, and out into the area behind the bench.


Next I cut some pieces of conduit into appropriate lengths, threaded them over the cable, and secured the conduit with some clamps. Here's the clamp inside the cabinet.


I will be putting several outlets at the left side of the bench where the cable emerges from the cabinet.

I previously installed outlets at the front of one of my benches, and they were so useful I decided this would be a great opportunity to put in a couple more.


Once I decided on the location, I drilled out the front edge of the bench (a 2x4) with a hole saw.


After enlarging the opening with a chisel, I threaded the armored cable through and connected the extra outlet. I always use armored cable under the bench, just in case I happen to drill through the bench top - not very likely as it's made of 2x6 boards, but it's always better to take too many precautions where safety is concerned.


Next I extended the cable/conduit to the pre-existing outlets at the rear of each bench.



These outlets are fed by cable exiting from the outlet bank at the left side of the bench - essentially what I have is just a long extension lead with LOTS of additional outlets....or it will be when I get it finished...

1 comment:

  1. Nice! My garage was tied to the family room. If I had the TV on and I fired up a drill, 1/4 of the house would shut down. I ran 220 to the garage and split it off to 4 - 120v outlets. I got AC in the garage/man cave now.

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