# How I should wire and light the shop



## jfkid (Jul 27, 2014)

My new house came with a 25x27 stick built shop. It has 10 ft walls framed with 2x4s, 16 ft overhead door, man door, and one north facing window. It is unfinished. I would like to insulate, Sheetrock, and instal some heat and ac. This means I need to wire it first! Starting from a 100 amp box there are two 220v 50a welder circuits, one 220v 20a circuit, one 110v 20a lighting circuit, two 110v 20a outlet circuits, and one 15a outdoor light circuit. Leaving six empty slots.  

Help me figure out what else I should wire up to facilitate a general metal shop before I close up the walls! I plan to at least wire in a 220v circuit for heater and air conditioner, an outlet for a future door opener, and add more 110v outlets then the current 4 (one per wall).

I hope to have a lathe (13"-15"), Bridgeport type mill, drill press, saw, grinder, welder and maybe a smaller cnc mill eventually. All this will be slowly acquired most likely through craigslist or similar second hand route. I'd like to not handy cap myself in the beginning. 

Thanks in advance for the help!


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## JimDawson (Jul 27, 2014)

What I did was to mount the breaker panel on the surface rather than flush to the sheetrock.  That way it is more ''industrial'' and allows me add wiring in the shop as needed.  I run all of my wiring in conduit.  I'll be adding a circuit in the next couple of weeks to run my surface and T&C grinder.  Just run a conduit, pull in the wires and wire as needed, simple.  Plastic conduit is cheap, and very easy to run.  Only use metal boxes for fire safety, and be sure to properly ground everything.

Also if I put in a 120V drop I put in a twin duplex box.  That way I have 4 outlets at each drop, and I only use 20 Amp industrial outlets, much tougher than standard house outlets.

EDIT: This sentence should read  .... I only use 20 Amp industrial *outlets (*not plug)


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## drs23 (Jul 27, 2014)

JimDawson said:


> What I did was to mount the breaker panel on the surface rather than flush to the sheetrock.  That way it is more ''industrial'' and allows me add wiring in the shop as needed.  I run all of my wiring in conduit.  I'll be adding a circuit in the next couple of weeks to run my surface and T&C grinder.  Just run a conduit, pull in the wires and wire as needed, simple.  Plastic conduit is cheap, and very easy to run.  Only use metal boxes for fire safety, and be sure to properly ground everything.
> 
> Also if I put in a 120V drop I put in a twin duplex box.  That way I have 4 outlets at each drop, and I only use 20 Amp industrial plugs, much tougher than standard house outlets.



Solid advise. That's the way my shop is wired and it's worked out great.


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## Terrywerm (Jul 27, 2014)

+1 on the surface mount wiring in conduit. We did my uncle's farm shop that way. It is a pole building with steel on the outside, and we also did steel on the inside. Not having to work around the electrical when putting up the sheeting was a definite plus. He had an electrician do the wiring (it was harvest time... too busy to do it ourselves!) and he had it all done in just over a day.


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## DMS (Jul 27, 2014)

We re-did out garage wiring a couple years ago, and I will throw in a vote for surface conduit. Our walls were already finished. There were some receptacles there, but they were all on one circuit shared with lighting circuit from the house (WTH?). We ran a bunch of separate curcuits, mostly 120, with dedicated 220 for the dryer, mill (a ceiling drip), lathe, and welder. Dedicated 120 for the lights (5, 4 foot, 2 tube splash proof fixtures hung from chains), washer, and drill press.

It took us a while to do, but mostly because we only had evenings and weekends to do it, but it wasn't that hard. I think we only screwed up two bends in the conduit. Here are some photos.


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## jfkid (Jul 29, 2014)

Thanks for all the help (and pictures!) 

Is there any thoughts on best lighting for the job. I was thinking 4 banks of fluorescents to replace the four existing bulbs.


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## Waketec1 (Jul 29, 2014)

Just be carefully with regular magnetic fluorescent fixtures, the frequency of your power utility, usually 60hz up here in Canada can cause a situation where a spinning chuck, spindle etc appears to be at a stand still. Electronic fluorescent ballasts are what your after.


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## DMS (Jul 29, 2014)

I splurged for the "high end" water washdown rated, electronic ballast, low temp start fixtures from the local Home Depot. I really like them. No flicker at all, start really quick too. Not to mention the lexan covers have withstood several strikes from me whacking them with stock as I try awkwardly to maneuver through the shop.


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## Propfool (Jul 30, 2014)

You might consider using 1/2 inch plywood or 1/2 inch OSB instead of sheetrock for finishing the walls. It is a lot easier to install and there is no need to finish the joints. This would permit attaching heavier objects to the wall without the need for finding a stud every time you need to hang something on the wall.  I use multiple Harbor Freight magnetic strips to hold small items such as tool bits, drill bits, and hand tools. 
Paint the walls flat white to reflect the maximum amount of light. There is no such thing as too much light in a shop! I used 8 foot 2-75 watt single pin electronic ballast fluorescent fixtures from Lowes ($38).  They will start at 0 degrees F. I also used 4 foot shop lights (2-40 watt fluorescent lamps) suspended from the ceiling over each machine and workbench. Install wall outlets 4 feet above the floor to plug these prewired shop lights into. You can use a flush mounted main breaker panel and wire outlets and switches by wiring the shop with romex by drilling the studs.  This eliminates the need for conduit.  You can include a 100 amp surface mounted panel for future circuits using PVC conduit.
I will be happy to send photos of my shop if you wish.


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## rmack898 (Jul 30, 2014)

I ran all my wiring (romex) in the walls during construction. I have 4-gang receptacles every 8' around the perimeter walls of the shop. I also put a few duplex receptacles in the ceiling for cord reels, door opener, and additional fluorescent fixtures above the lathe and mill. I also ran a few 60 amp 220 circuits for welders and my single phase machines.


All of the 3-phase wiring coming off my RPC is run in surface mounted plastic conduit. This makes it very easy to add or move a machine in the shop. I've done 3 complete re-shuffles of machines in the shop over the years when a new machine needs to find a home.


You cant have enough lighting. My Ceiling is white and I have 12, two tube 48" T-8 fixtures with an additional 2 two tube 48" hanging fixtures over the lathe and mill and sometimes it's just not enough light, this is truly a case of where more is always better.


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## CraigS (Jul 31, 2014)

Hi,
Just went through and updated the lighting in my 24 x30 shop.  It had six 8' dual tube T12 fixtures I put in almost 40 years ago, most were dying or dead.   I wanted to go with LED's and tried to emulate the lighting of an LED re-lamped SevenElevn which had suburb lighting.  I managed to ID the troffers used in the SevenEleven but at around $400 each it just didn't pencil out, even for bragging rights.  Even tried to make my own with some Cree emitters, the prototype had the light I needed but the cost was still too expensive.

I ended up modifying my existing two tube T12 fixtures to take four T8 tubes.  Just finished up two days ago, the light is as good as the SevenEleven, better CRI than my LED prototype, and double what I had with the T12's.  The key with the T8's is to get the correct tubes and ballasts.

I used a 500K broad spectrum 900 series phosphor tube with a high lumen output from Litetronics and a matching GE UltraMaxH ballast with a ballast factor of 1.18.  The ballast factor is important parameter to look for and determines the tube's drive current and light output.  A lot of ballasts are sold as energy savers and have low ballast factors (like .87) they only drive the bulb at 87% of its rating, yes it saves energy but at the cost of light output.  My GE UltraMaxH drives the tubes at 118% for more light.  I am getting about 1000 LUX at 36" off the floor  total power is 909W and if I want to save energy I turn several off.    The 900 series phosphor is a nice broad spectrum brilliant white with a CRI of 90.  I ended up with 24  T8 tubes arranged in three strings parallel to the 24' wall, one in the center, two  midway to the wall on each side of center. The total cost for the bulbs, new ballasts and new sockets  with shipping was around $300.  This was less than one LED fixture.  Glad I did the T8 and not the LED's, light is great, instant on, on hum or flickering, very happy with the results.

Got everyting at 1000bulbs.com
Tubes:  Litetronics L-359 F32T8CB50 
Ballast: GE UltraMax H   part number 71723 (drives 4 lamps)
Sockets:  Leviton 23351   

Home center stuff is not your best choice for the best light output.   Go for premium tubes and ballasts.  One post I found suggested you buy cheep low cost fixtures without tubes.  Then just toss the ballast and replace it with something really good. 

Craig


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## silence dogood (Aug 1, 2014)

My shop originally had T12 mag fluorescents.  Then I put in aT8 electronic.  End up replacing all T12s  for the T8s. I also use 110v gooseneck LED lamps that I got for spot lighting.  It's the only way to go. 
Mark


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