The Workshop Expansion...Part III

Well, I woke up this morning a bit sorer than normal. The shop woke up a bit messier than normal, to say the least.

Last night while we were wiring up the shop, we were on a mission. A mission not to be deterred by the Martha Stewart types of the world. We were wiring, dammit, doing manly things, cleanliness be damned. As a result, this morning the shop looked as if the twister that struck when Mike and I built the new wall had struck again.

After having my morning iced tea and staring at the devastation that we had caused the previous night, I decided that the mess wasn't going to go away on its own, no matter how long I stared at it. Here's what I was staring at, just to give you an idea...

I'll spare you the longwinded gory details, but after working all day, here's how it all ended up. It is by no means finished, but by the time I decided to call it a day I had reached my limit for cleaning for one day. Actually, I probably went over my limit...

At least now I can see the floor...still can't see the top of my workbench, but all in good time. But, as you can see, most of the big tools have been moved to their new homes...all wired up and ready to ruin some wood.

The one happy note of the day is that the air conditioner that had previously stopped working magically started functioning again this afternoon. Why or how I can not explain, but I'm sure not complaining.

The Workshop Expansion...Part II

Saturday, August 2nd started out as a quiet day in the Atlanta suburbs...but that was to change. You see, August 2nd was the day slated to be the day of the great wiring party...mayhem and havoc were to be the order of the day.

Enough of the melodramitic crap, lets get on with it. Just a warning, this is going to be a long post with lots of pictures. And lots of dead sheetrock...

Tom and David arrived about 10am...I don't think even they were ready for what we were to embark on.

First order of the day was to pull three 2 gauge wires from our laundry room out to the garage...a distance of about eight feet, not counting the distance from the ceiling to the boxes. Just as a frame of reference, keep in mind that 2 gauge wire is about 3/8" in diameter and is made up of a bunch of strands of solid copper. A foot of it weights about a pound, more or less...its heavy...and stiff...and a royal pain in the ass to pull around a corner.

In order to get these wires from point A to point B, we needed to do some demolition...a lot of sheetrock had to be sacrificed and a mess had to be made.

After breaking a few drill bits, we finally got the holes drilled through the joists and the wires run. Next up was the daunting task of wiring up the 100A breaker that would run the subpanel in the shop. Below you can see David starting the job, only to find out that those big wires carry a bit of juice! (Actually, folks, he was just kidding...I assure you that he's as not right as he was when he arrived) Tom ended up actually wiring up the breaker and all the other stuff in the box...seems like he's done this stuff before.

Next up was the fun part...running Romex and wiring outlets. While Tom was wiring up the main box, David and I started running conduit down the new wall. We couldn't run behind the wall between the studs, so the only way to do it and have it as close to being to code as if an electrician had done it was with conduit. We wired two circuits down that wall, with a total of four sets of outlets. Tom showed me how to tie the wires into the breakers and, I'm pleased to say, I'm still here, the house is still here, and the outlets work.

After the "new wall" outlets were completed, we commenced to drilling more holes and pulling more wire. 12/2 Romex to be exact. We ran eight more 110V circuits, and one 220V circuit (with 10/3 Romex) for the future addition of an air cleaner. It took the three of us the better part of two hours just to get the wire run through the joists and to the subpanel.

Now that the Romex was run, we decided to subdivide and conquer. Being the "apprentice", so to speak, I spent most of my time stapling the Romex to the joists and studs and pulling it through the outlet boxes. David would come behind me and wire up the outlets while Tom wired them into the breaker box. It all went pretty quickly, and I think we were all rather glad when we fired up all the breakers and they all tested out OK.

It really sucks that I don't have more pictures of the endeavor, but I think we were all trying to get done rather than play photo-journalist. Besides, you've all seen electrical outlets before, I'm sure.

All in all, it took us until about 11:30pm to complete the job. I'm sure Tom and David will think twice before volunteering to help me with a project again, but I am most indebted to them for all of their help.