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Large shop wiring

86turbodsl

Cast Iron
Joined
Aug 12, 2004
Location
MI, USA
Recently i have been thinking about wiring up my shop for 3 phase loadcenter instead of running cords all over the place one at a time.

I have a 40x64 shop, and 3 phase machines are concentrated in opposite corners, metal and wood don't mix too well, so does it make sense to run the rpc by the main 200A load center and feed a 3ph panel right there for the loads in that corner, and run a subpanel in the other corner of the shop for the wood machines? I have welders and machine tools in one corner and 3ph wood machines in the opposite corner. i think it might be expensive to run circuits from one corner to another?

What's the building size point where subpanels start to make sense?
 
I have a substantially smaller (24x27) shop, with one wall being 50% overhead door. I put the phase converter and a 3-phase loadcenter in the corner by the utility supply panel, ran 4x4 raceway around the three non-door walls of the shop at 12 feet above ground (because there wasn't room on the ceiling above the raised door and snaking around all the ceiling mounted lights), and ran conduit drops from the raceway down to outlets and safety disconnects at various places around the shop. There's still lots of room in the raceway for more circuits, but no room on the floor for more machines.
 
You can certainly get something that suspends from the ceiling, but your local authority having jurisdiction (the electric code people, local to you) might want to see UL certification for the purpose.

My support brackets stand the raceway off the wall about an inch, IIRC. SquareD also has drop hangers to mount on the ceiling, or bracket hangers to mount on the wall with more clearance between the wireway and the wall, and I'm pretty sure all the other raceway makers have the same.

You could run one conduit with heavy wire across the ceiling to a small subpanel on the opposite wall, then take your branch circuits on that side from the subpanel.
 
I think, without going to the shop to look, that my Siemens 3-phase panel (purchased off the shelf at a local Home Depot!) has 30 spaces. So limited to 10 three-phase circuits. Not what I would call tiny, but not a huge industrial loadcenter.
 
I have a couple of ras, a jointer,, a planer, bandsaw, and table saw in the woodshop. So 6 circuits would work. In the other half, a Bridgeport, lathe and hoist. Half a dozen each corner would work. I already have one panel with enough spaces.

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Maybe it makes sense to put the main panel in the woodshop as I have more circuits there.

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I didn't see anything i can use there. They did have bussway and plugs, but i think that's going to be more expensive than conduit and wire for this project anyway. I did find a couple 3ph panels locally on craigslist.
 
Bus duct

Find a good deal on a whole setup as the pieces get pricey if bought one at a time

I found a deal on ebay when I moved into this shop and got 100+feet plus boxes for 100 bucks

Guy was happy for the money, he got paid to tear it out and paid by me, and I left him the aluminum raceway[ladder looking stuff for above suspended ceiling] and he sold it for scrap

Long term it is cheap as you can move and change and take it with you
 
My shop is 50x120 with the power coming in on one end. Lots of my machines are at the other so I ran a subpanel up there because I wasn't going to pull wire 100+ ft for every circuit. Another consideration as to deciding is to weigh in on how much stuff is in the space that needs wired, if you have long runs but it is all open and easy, then pulling everything from one side is not bad and really comes down to wire/conduit cost, but if you have lots of stuff in the way of doing the work, then you only want to do it once.

I have not used raceway, I don't think anyway, so not sure how it is different than a buss bar. If I had to start over from scratch I'd seriously consider a buss bar as long as I could find it cheap. Had it at the old job and it is very nice for when things need to get moved around. I have heard that HGR has some sometimes. My shop had 3 phase when I bought it and had SqD panels and I picked up a couple used ones to add in where I wanted it. SqD 100 amp breakers aren't cheap. But big fuses aren't really either.

I think putting your main panel with the most available spaces where the most machines are and then put a sub on the other side would be the simplest.

I got a lot at a sale of disconnects so I have a 100 and 200 amp fused disconnect that I am probably not going to use. Both SqD, let me know if you are interested, be cheap.

Jason
 
Looked on eBay and nothing even close to affordable. Hundreds per section was the norm

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