JimReed Posted April 2, 2012 Report Share Posted April 2, 2012 In my new shop, I plan to add some overhead electrical outlets for easy access without tripping over cords on the floor. Does anyone have recommendations for the best method or the best retractable cord products to accomplish this purpose? My ceilings are 12' high if that influences your recommendation. Jim Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vic Posted April 2, 2012 Report Share Posted April 2, 2012 Jim, this was the reply on another forum. It's what I was thinking of, but didn't know the nomenclatur "What I would recommend is putting boxes on the ceiling above where you want the power drops, then use cord reliefs/cord strain reliefs to hold bus drop cord and use that to come down from your box to the receptacle or plug at the end. Go to McMaster.com and search for cable cord grips or cable strain reliefs then also search for bus drops for the heavy duty bus drop cables" When I was originally designing my shop, I went to Grainger and this is what they recommended. I ended up building on a crawl space and everything is in the floor. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dwacker Posted April 2, 2012 Report Share Posted April 2, 2012 You can get wire clamps at home depot for twenty cents and a metal box cover with knock out for another quarter. Make a short cord with a female end, wire it up and your done. Don Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
duckkisser Posted April 2, 2012 Report Share Posted April 2, 2012 what i want to do is mount them to ceiling in my shop only problem is our ceiling are like 20 feet high any sugestions? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dwacker Posted April 3, 2012 Report Share Posted April 3, 2012 ==> You can get wire clamps at home depot for twenty cents and a metal box cover with knock out for another quarter. Make a short cord with a female end, wire it up and your done yea, but overhead should use twist lock (at least in our area, the inspectors like that) so it would cost a few bucks to go that way...Twist locks are code for 220 or essential service on overhead. Essential service would be some sort medial or fire protection device. I had one put in when the shop was built. Ended up taking it out, just wast as neat as it sounded.Don Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cusas6 Posted April 4, 2012 Report Share Posted April 4, 2012 Am I missing something? Why wouldn't you just put in a outlet box and hang a retractable cord like this one: http://www.rockler.com/product.cfm?page=10673&site=ROCKLER On most of these you can adjust the stop so the cord can hang down to where you need it and even with 12' ceilings you can still pull it out a little to move from that one spot. This is what I'm considering in my garage. Of course after typing this, it comes to mind that I am thinking only of my two car garage where I have to move my tools to the middle to have enough room so the one drop works. If you have a full shop with stationary tools, the above comments make a lot more sense. Sorry for my ramblings. -Scott Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tim0625 Posted April 25, 2012 Report Share Posted April 25, 2012 Many good suggestions above but I think back to the days of college summers in maintenance at the knitting mill. In the cutting room (huge!) they unrolled cloth on 50 yard long tables to cut it into T Shirt shapes. At various places over the tables, the just dropped a piece of flexible wire/cable down from the main line....like a 12 gauge extension cord...we use to call it SJO but you get the idea. Each one had a female on the end so no matter where the cutter needed to hook up, he had power. Another thing they used was a electrified trolley that had a receptacle hanging down that could be pulled along. The picture below is about 20 feet that was salvaged from the scrap pile and it hangs along my 20' table that's along a wall. I know they still sell this trolley somewhere. Your deal is you will not need power hanging from all over the shop - just various key spots. Also, since I'm the only one in my shop, there will only be one machine running at one time so I wire many machines on one 20A breaker on a central 12 gauge wire. Yup, I know, fire up the 18 band saw AND the table saw, it may throw the breaker but I do not have go go gadget arms. Dust Collector is on it's own circuit and by the way, TimV's DC remote works great! I was by a client's automotive repair business and he had this yellow cord reel. It originally came with a florescent light on the end. When the light went bad he was throwing the entire unit away. He gave 2 of the units to me. I just replaced the broken light with a female receptacle and voila--- free 50' retractable cord reels mounted at the shop door to stretch out into the driveway or back into the shop. Check the garages because they would rather just replace a bad one with another new unit and get back to work. Thoughts on a Wednesday. Tim Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave H Posted April 25, 2012 Report Share Posted April 25, 2012 Rockler sells a 30' retactable cord reel 12ga I have three in my shop and I love them, for my new 220v 3horse table saw I cut the cord ends off, and put the proper ends on the cord. You want to clean the shop in nothing flat the floor is clear of cords, and you can consentrate on the mess. Normally they cost $89 they are on sale right now for $69 if you go this rout you'll never regret it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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