Installing a 220V Outlet… Because Your Garage Deserves More!

All right, we're back. Hard crack. Sit back, grab a beer. Let's get at her. [music] All right. What's up? So, this is weird. I lost audio on my GoPro like through the whole entire video. When I went to go edit it, I don't have any audio. So, I'm going to do a voice over for this whole thing. Today we're going to throw 220 in the garage. Hopefully we don't blow up. Hopefully we don't start the place on fire. We should be good to go though. Um, so just ignore all of my talking cuz my lips are not going to match up with what I'm saying. And right now I have no clue what I'm saying. But I'm going to show you guys what we picked up. So we picked up a 30 amp 50 amp breaker. We picked up the 30 amp plug right there. It's going to go in a box right next to it, the new construction box. We'll bolt it down and uh we'll be good to go. And then right next to that, I picked up the 50 amp plug. This one's for my welder. Um they get installed the same way. This one's just 50 amps and not 30. Um so I'll get that one mounted to the wall. And then right next to it, we have a 50 amp breaker. Square D 30 amp breaker square D. I have a Westinghouse panel. Um Westinghouse went out of business and they converted to Eaton Electric, but Square D fits all the same. Um so here's the 50 amp and then the 30. And the plate right next to it is a uh just a blank plate. I didn't want to spend eight dollars to cut a plank a plate for that 30 amp plug. So, I'm just going to drill a hole right in the center. It was like 99 cents. Um, so hopefully I hopefully I drill it and don't crack it, but we'll see how it goes. So, the wire I got was a 10 gauge wire. I only got like three feet of it, I think. Stuff was expensive. I was going to use ROMX, but the guy at the store sold me that 10 gauge, so I just went with that. And it it it works fine. Um, it all does the same stuff. Wire is wire. The only hard part about this is it's stranded and not solid. But I have no clue what I'm rambling on about probably how I was going to change the garage or something. I don't know. But anyways, I'm just going to cut right into me taking off the panel. Uh, save you guys some time. So, let's jump into that. All right. So, we jumped over to I don't even know what I was talking about over there, but we jumped over to taking off the front of the panel here. It's a Phillips. Well, at least mine is. Some of them are flat, some are Phillips. Um, just depends on what you have. But like I said, it's a Westinghouse panel. I got Phillips four that take the cover plate off. After you take the cover plate off, you'll see all the guts to the inside. Be careful. There is uh it is live in there. So, just don't go poking and proddding around in there with with metal things. But so, right now, I only have well, I have a main breaker and then I have two breakers. one for outlets and one for lights. So, I'm going to add 220 there for a plasma and an air compressor. So, yeah. So, here's the inside of my panel. Um, bunch of wires everywhere. You got your main wire coming in from the bottom there up to your 100 amp breakers at the top. And then you have looks like they put 142 in there. I would have done 122, but whatever. This garage was probably built 25 years ago. So 122 coming in to my outlets and my lights. Um I don't have an issue with any breakers popping now. I I could upgrade that breaker in the future. Maybe run some more wire and do some better outlets, but we'll worry about that at a later date. Right now it works good enough for me. And once I get an air compressor, I'll be running air tools and my welder and everything will be on their own outlets, so I'm not too worried about it. Everything I have is electric anyway. So, as long as I can charge a battery and power some lights, works for me. So, I was going to retake that I was going to take off that whole sheet of plywood there that was around the box, but I figured why why not just cut an access panel? It would be be a lot easier. So, I just cut a I don't even know what it was. Probably a 16 by 16 panel, maybe 24 by 16 panel. Um, that gave me enough room to get in there. I don't have that much wire either. I only had a foot and a half or so for each. So, I just took that panel out there. Um, I'll refen it back to the studs when I'm done in all four corners. But, yeah, it it it made it easier. Um, that way if I ever have to change that 220 plug or I want to do something different, then it it'll give me the flexibility to do that later on. So, I'm just going to cut the insulation out and peel it back down and start throwing in the wires. All right. So, we got that insulation cut out and dropped down. Now, there's a 2x4 in the way. We'll have to take a hole of that. But to get into the box, there's these knockouts. Basically, if you take a flathead screwdriver, you can push those in and peel them out, bend them out, whatever you got to do, get a pliers in there. Um, and then take a spade bit or hole saw like I did, and cut through that 2x4 to get your wires in there. If you have a little bit bigger of a wire, like the runs coming into a home, you'll have to get they call like a knockout tool and basically you can put it in the box and you press the trigger and it'll or pump it, whatever you have, automatic or manual, and it'll actually punch a bigger hole than what you need. I think like I need like a 3 and 1/2 inch when I did the electrical panel on my house um to run my service cables from the pole in. Um, but for this application, it's just two 10 gauge wires. We can do it by hand. So, yeah. So, I threw up that uh new work or old work construction box. I wish I would have bought a new work construction box just to go right to the stud, but I didn't. So, anyways, here's the hole that I drilled for the 10 gauge wire with a hole saw. I knocked out that metal plate on the other side. That'll fit the two wires perfectly. I'm not too worried about it. I did have to get a screwdriver there and pry backwards and hopefully or luckily I had enough room. But anyways, back to the box. So, I didn't use the box how I was intended to use because if I would have used it how it was intended, then every time I have to take that piece of plywood down, if I ever have to, then the whole box is going to go with it. And that wasn't going to work for me. So, I didn't want to go to the store and buy a new box, the proper box. So, I just dropped two drywall screws in there. It's not going to go anywhere. or my compressor is going to be plugged into it full time. So, I'm not too worried about it. But, yeah, that's about that's about it. Pretty simple. Throw your box up there. Drill a hole into your panel. And next, we'll run the wires. So, at this point, the lights are off in the garage. I killed the main breaker so I can start working in the panel. I'm going to drop that 50 amp in there. Basically, you put one side in there, get it clicked in in the little tabs, and then push in the back. They're they're a little difficult at times. So, you have to really give it might have to put a pliers or a screwdriver on it and and really get in there. I'm struggling with it right now, but I eventually get it. It it there it went pops right in. So, have the 50 in there. I'll throw the 30 in. We'll run some wire. So, as you see updated here, I got the 30 amp. You can see it right at the bottom. Um, I stripped that coating of wire back. It's pretty easy. Just take a box knife or a knife of any sorts or your wire stripper and strip that coating off. It's thin. Just don't cut into your your stranded cable or your wire. Um, basically anything that's inside the box doesn't have to be coated as far as like the jacket on the outside. And it makes it easier too if you don't. So, cut that jacket all the way back at where it comes into the box. Run your cables in. Make sure your ground goes to your ground bar. On the far right side, there's a ground bar right where I just lifted it up there. Um, and your cables don't have to be that long. I'm going to cut it right where my left hand is. And I'm going to strip it back and then put it in there. Tighten those screws down. So, here you'll see me starting to strip the wire. And so, I cut it right. gave myself a little bit extra room, but not too much. You can just discard those, keep them for scrap. You get some money from them if you want. Um, now just just take your strippers. If you don't have one that does 10 gauge like I don't, um, it it just ended up chewing my strands apart when I tried it. Um, just cut that coating, be very gentle with it, and then pull off with a needle nose or whatever you have to do to uh, get that coating off there. over there. I'm just working it around cutting that jacket and uh I'll get it pulled off. So, it's a pain, but you'll get her. So, I got my black wire stripped, too. It It was a pain to get that one off of there. Um but I had to twist those strands a little tighter. The breaker, the screw in there wasn't really opening up the way I wanted to. So, I have to really get on it and twist them tight. I didn't break any strands that I know of. Maybe maybe one or two. Who knows? Uh, it's not that big of a deal. It'll be fine. But, uh, yeah. So, twist them tight if you have to. Like I said, like ROMX would have been a hundred times easier. It would have taken me 20 minutes and not two hours because stranded wire sucks. ROMX you can just strip, pull off, and be done. Um, but yeah, we eventually get it into that top one there. The when you 220 like so 110 you have a negative or a ground, a neutral and a positive. With 220 you don't have the neutral. You just have the power basically for two. So it's just two 110s and a ground. There's no there's no neutral. So, that's the same thing when you wire up like the compressor video that I'll do. You'll see the wiring on that. Um, it's just two positives and no no neutral. So, um, just remember that that there is no if your box has a neutral bar, which it should. Mine's on the left side. Um, if it has a neutral bar, you're not going to use the neutral bar for 220. You're just going to use your power from the top and bottom for your double pole and then just ground it right there. Um, but here I got the white one in. I'm throwing the black one in now. And the ground just goes right to the ground bar. So, I'm going to skip to where I'm putting that all together and then we'll we'll run the uh 30 amp. So, now that I got my big head out of the way, you'll see I have the the wires on the breaker and now I'm running the ground. Um, I cut a little short, but it it ended up working out. You can you can skip around on that ground bar. Nothing tells you that you have to go in order. Just your OCD tells you that. Um, that's easy that, too. That's just a flathead and just put the wire in the hole, tighten the flathead down, and uh you're good to go. It's super simple. Nothing really to it. So, if you made it this far in, 11 minutes and 45 seconds in, grab yourself another beer. I certainly did. So, this is about a two, three beer project. Nothing too big, but grab yourself another beer and let's finish this up here. So, we have the 50 amp currently, and you can see it in the wall there. That's not going to go to my 30 amp box. That's going to go to that black box that I had. Now, I'm going to run the 30 amp. And I think I I did it wrong in the way that I'm showing you. Um, but when like I'm wiring a house, I like to start at the boxes and run back to the panel. So then I know that I have enough to get to the whatever way you want to do it. It's fine. I'm probably do it backwards. Everyone can make fun of me for it. I don't care. But, um, this way works just as well cuz I knew that I had enough wire. So, it's not that big of a deal. But, anyways, you just strip that coating off like I did for the previous. Pull the ground off. You don't need to wire nut your grounds. It's bare copper the whole time. So, there's no point in wire nutting them because the whole wire is bare. Like, you're it doesn't make any sense. So, if you ever do grounds, just wire up the top or don't wire up the top. I mean, just keep them just twist them together, call it a day. But yeah, so now just shove that one through the hole and wire it up like you did for the other one. So this clip was like a six minute clip. I sped it up to 20 seconds. Hopefully it's not super laggy on your guys' end. But just boring stuff. Just stripping the wire again, getting it all prepped and ready to go. Um, and in this next clip, you'll see I did something a little different. So, here it comes back. I'm just looking at myself, making sure I'm still cute. So, I decided to pull the 30 amp out and then wire it, tighten everything down, and push the breaker back in. Instead of working between that 2-in gap I have there and trying to see without any lights in the garage, because every time I'd move in front of the panel, that light would cast a shadow. So, I couldn't really see anything. Um, I'm just trying this method, putting them in the breakers first and then snapping the breaker in. Someone out there probably tell me that's the wrong thing to do, but it ended up working for me. So, just twisting those strands a little tighter to get that wire into that breaker. Um, but yeah, so once I get the breaker in, we'll get back. So, here's another two-minute clip I put down to six six seconds. So, I got all the wires tightened up, got everything in here. Now, we resume full speed again where you just lock those two front tabs like we did for the first breaker and push as hard as you can. It should go in there. I had a little problem with this one, but yep, got it to pop. You'll know when it clicks. You'll see it all sit flush and good. So, grab your ground. Cut my wire a little short here. Um, bend it up. Undo your ground screw on your ground bar with a flathead screwdriver. and put the ground in there and you it's wired up now. You just got to add your plugs. So, same thing on the plug side. You're going to cut that sheeting back. I'm using my wire strippers here, the Milwaukee wire strippers. Um, they're amazing. My favorite ones. I've used them for any wiring I have to do. I forget the sizes that they go to. Do we think it's like oh jeez 22 24 20 something like that all the way up to 10 gauge. Um solid. It's a seven in one crimpers pliers strippers. It's it feels great in the hands too. It It's really nice. But anyways, I'm just stripping the wires for my plug side. Same thing you did the last two times. Put it in the box. Super simple. I'm going to fast forward this part too until we get a plug on there. And uh yeah. All right. So, we skipped over to the plug. Another one. Hard crack. Wow. So, we skipped over to the plug side. Now, we got both wires stripped. Um and again, like if you're doing 110 plug, you have a brass side and a silver side. Black to brass saves your ass. Silver, white, pretty easy. And then green is always ground. So, but with 220, you're going to have two brass. Just put the white on one, the black on the other, and your ground and your ground. Um, I had to mess around with these screws for a little bit. They seemed a little tight at first, but they're fine. Um, once I got them cracked and loosened up, they ended up working out. So yeah, now just throw that in and pretty much good to go. So again, I sped this clip up. This is just me wiring it all in, tightening all the screws on the plugs. Um, and now we're going to mount the plug to the box. So don't mount it yet. Um, unless you get the proper cover, I guess, but my cover, I ended up having to take the screws back out and then the screws went through the cover and into the plug. So just just look at how it works and and go from there. But yeah, so now we're going to mount the 50 amp plug for the welder. That's where that little stub is there hanging out of the wall. We're going to mount that and we're carrying on. So here I closed up the panel. I just drilled a hole, I think a half inch hole through the piece of plywood there and then mounted where I wanted the box to sit, the plug to sit. I didn't show any of that. Everyone's application is going to be different. I guess the main part of this is just the wiring into the panel. The plug's pretty easy to figure out. There's three three places, three wires. Green is ground. Other two go to the other two holes. Pretty simple. Uh the panel is the part that people get a little scared about, but not that big of a deal. So, here I am just tightening down the screws to the 50 amp plug. These wires kind of sucked deep in there. had to bend them really tight. And there's like a little tab on the terminal that you have to make sure is seated before you can before you can tighten them down or that thing's just going to pop out on you. So yeah, take a flathead, tighten it down. Why they haven't made plugs and outlets and electrical stuff Phillips yet, I have no clue. That would help everybody, but it's a flathead. So, tighten it down and we'll throw our covers on and we'll be good to go. So, here's the last little once over of everything. You have your two brass, your ground, your white. Here's your panel. You have your black, white, two breakers, 50 and 30 double poles. You have your ground going to your ground bar. You have your 30 amp plug for my air compressor. My panels on. I finished up screwing those later on after I closed out the video, but just did some finishing work on them. So, let's close up this video. Throw some covers on there and be done. So, here I threw the covers on the outlets. The that I ended up cutting I didn't show it in the video, but I ended up cutting a like a 2in hole out of that plastic cover. But, ended up working pretty good. Just marked off center and cut it. But, I got the welder plugged in. Now, this isn't the welder that I bought. This is Well, I did buy it, but this isn't the new one. But yeah, we're running 250 amps on the Yes Welder. Plasma torch fired right up. And I felt the welder just run a lot better, too, after I switched it over because I've been running on 110 for all my cutting and stuff been doing on my axles. But I got it cranked all the way up. Look at that. Boom. She's Yeah, that's per That's going to cut some half inch stuff for sure. So, super excited about that. And uh yeah, I can't wait for my new weller to get here, my air compressor to plug in. Stay tuned for those. And uh I'll be back. So here I am just closing out the video. Um I'm sorry, voice over sucked, but I want to get one out to you guys. Um doing this project, this is stuff I like to do. So I had to make a video on it, show you guys how to put 220 in the garage so you can buy that welder or get that air compressor that you want to get. But anyways, you guys have a great night and uh I'll talk to you later. [music]