I need 220! More POWER!!! ! YAHAHAHA!

[hastingr]

My wife has ceded to me one third of our three car garage. We have a really tall ceiling in the garage, 14.5 feet, so I built a 120 SF loft over my shop with about 5 feet of headroom and placed some vinyl flooring to make it easy to sweep. (Yeah, right:-)
So, now I have lots of storage.

I have a Woodpeck.com router table top and insert on the way, and I drew out the plans for making the case for it last weekend. It seems to me that it needs to be about 40 inches in height. I'm 5'11". Is that about right? I'll post photos when I'm finished with it.

I also am in need of serious dust collection. Price is always an issue, but even more so is that I don't want to die too young either. I happen to like breathing. Bill Pentz pretty much convinced me not to go the cheap route. Now one wall of my shop backs up to the laundry room, and there is an existing 220 line on the other side of that wall, rigged for the dryer, but we use gas, so that 220 line goes unused. Can I just locate that line, drop a new box on this side and hook it up? Ok, maybe not a "can I" more a matter of "Should I?"

The only possible tool I would run 220 on is for DC. If I find a 110 DC system that works for me, I won't need the 220 line at all.

Or, should I have an electrician come and wire 4 new 20 amp circuits for me while he is doing a 220?

Thoughts?

[maxparot]

The Harborfreight 2hp DC that is highly regarded is a 120v only unit it would be your best bet for a high quality dust collection system. To get the real small particle go for the Wynn cartridge convertion.

[rickd]

[quoteOr, should I have an electrician come and wire 4 new 20 amp circuits for me while he is doing a 220?

Thoughts?
[/quote]

hi,

not sure what you have for power now in your new shop, but if you don't have 20amp circuits, i would definitely go that route - four 20amps would be real nice. i am using 1/2 of a 2 car garage, so i guess it's kind of the same size as you have. currently, i have 2 x 20 amp, 2 x 15 amp(lights & small stuff) and 1 x 220v(grizzly 1029z DC). that works pretty good for me as i never seem to use 2 woodworking machines at the same time anyway(other than the DC on it's own 220v).

I had the same situation with my dryer - i wasn't using the existing wire, so i moved it from an adjacent wall into my shop, capped the white neutral wire, and used the two hots for my 220v connection to my DC(also installed a 20amp 2 pole breaker in the panel).

seems like most at this forum recommend going with as many 20amp circuits as you are able to and a spare 220v would be a great idea - just in case you ever want to use it.

[Tom Miller]

quote:Originally posted by hastingr

I'm 5'11". Is that about right?

Not much you can do about it now. But you might find a router table at 40" is a bit high.

But seriously, you might find ~37" (the height of the BT3x00) allows you to lean over a little more and provide better downward force. Another consideration, especially for a smaller shop, is the relative height of nearby tools and workbenches. I try to keep everything a little lower than my TS, so that I can cut longer boards without knocking into something.

Reappropriating that unused 220V line sounds like a reasonable thing to do.

Regards,
Tom

[hastingr]

Not much you can do about it now. But you might find a router table at 40" is a bit high.

Actually, I haven't built the case for it yet. I don't even have the materials for it yet:-) So, you think 40" is a bit high then?

I do have my trusty bt3000, but with the space I have, I'm gonna have to drag it out into the main area most of the time anyway. I've had that machine for 5 years now, it has been "reshimmed", and placed back in service. The only downside I have experienced with it is when the sliding table became "untrue" by about 1/2 a degree, and than I was making a whole bunch of cuts that didn't come out just right... Luckily, it wasn't that hard to fix. Overall, I like the table.

So, do those of you with the HF DC with the cartridge filter find it to work well then? Does it really do the job?

I could even put a handmade cyclone in front of it. Like I said, I have plenty of vertical space :-)

I think I have 3 20 amp circuits in the garage.

[LCHIEN]

I have my router table at 38.5" about the height of my BT saw on an HTC2000 mobile base. I like that height, I don't have to bend too low to adjust anything under the table and the top is at a good working height for detail work.

[monte]

I have the HF 2HP DC with the Wynns filter conversion and it works very well.

[os1kne]

I'm 6'0 and my BT is at 39", and I find that a bit high. Will build a mobile base in the summer a couple of inches lower.