Power cutoff necessary?

[crokett]

My basement shop will have a lock on the door to keep little fingers out. At least it will when I have a door to put in on, but then I also need a wall to put the door in... Anyhoo, wondering if something like this is a good idea:

http://www.lowes.com/lowes/lkn?actio...1NU&lpage=none

My daughter is not downstairs at all now but will be in the coming weeks when carpeting is put in the family room area.

[pierhogunn]

couldn't hurt, and just how is your little girl these day's haven't seen any more brag pictures ...

[Thalermade]

Great idea, as long as you never run anything else off of that subpanel except the shop tools. You will also want to power shop lights (at least one)from the main panel.

I am a little luckier as my kids are now teenagers. I keep things unplugged unless in use. I also try to lower the blade, make sure the miter saw is closed down, and not leave a drill bit in the drillpress. I have trained my kids, but you never can tell with others when curiosity will get the best of them.

[Bulkley]

When my kids were small, I padlocked my tablesaw switch.

[crokett]

Russ, circuits are already there and wired in. All I'd do is take the outlet circuits through the cutoff first. The lights are already on another circuit that I won't touch.

[WEG]

Hi crokett;

Can't hurt that's for sure. I didn't have anything like that when my kids were little (or big), but I did make sure things were "put away", unplugged, blades down, after I used them. Had I thought of a switch like that or been told of one, I would probably have installed it. Always better safe than sorry with our kids. And it's not just our kids or what they would do, but they will have friends over and you just can't tell...Good idea to shut down the chances of them getting hurt. Now, how do we switch off the batteries hmmm...
WEG

[Thalermade]

quote:Originally posted by crokett

Russ, circuits are already there and wired in. All I'd do is take the outlet circuits through the cutoff first. The lights are already on another circuit that I won't touch.

David, good thinking, sounds like you have your i's dotted and t's crossed. As WEG said another layer of protection certainly won't hurt.


Keep safe and have fun,

Russ

[Tom Miller]

OK, so I finally got over the hump of having to enter my zip code at the Lowes website to proceed to the link. [:I]

I considered doing something like this when I was trying to decide whether to put in a subpanel in my shop. Since I decided against the subpanel, I'd need one of these for each circuit. (I guess it's only a couple "tool" circuits -- wouldn't need one for the DC, wouldn't want one for the lights.)

Would you lock this switch, or just put it up high? If the latter, maybe you could just use a regular switch. Do they make 20A switches? Would that be much cheaper?

Obviously, you've got me thinking about this again!

Regards,
Tom

[Bulkley]

how about this? http://www.tools-for-woodworking.com...OD&ProdID=1888

[crokett]

Tom,

I'd lock it. Not sure if they make 20A switches. In the case of this box, you have 2 fuses, so you could either bring a circuit in and split it or wire 2 separate circuits through it. I already have 2 20A circuits into the shop, so this is what I will do.

Bilkley, I thought about something like that, but this lets me shut the entire shop down rather than have separate controls on all my tools.

[Deadhead]

quote:Originally posted by crokett

Anyhoo, wondering if something like this is a good idea:

http://www.lowes.com/lowes/lkn?actio...1NU&lpage=none

It's cheaper than a co-payment at the ER. Do it.