Replies

1. 
   BALDEAGLE | Dec 10, 2004 01:02am | #1

   Hi Fusionww

   I use ordinary powerstips in my 9' x 13' workshop here in the UK with no problems so far and by the way I do have a dust problem.  The only thing that should cause the electricity to arc is damp, is this the real problem? or have I missed something? By the way do you have good circuit breakers installed?

   All the best and Happy Christmas  Steve

2. 
   user-450633 | Dec 11, 2004 04:50pm | #2

   I have never had arcing in my shop but you could blow it out with air from time to time or glue on pierced silicone or similar material as shield. Or just create flap awning with similar material(assuming strip is mounted with outlets facing out not up) and that will keep most ambient dust from falling  into outlets.

   You can buy outlet plug style covers but that is a bore to remove each time

3. 
   mvac | Dec 27, 2004 01:02am | #3

   Hi Jim,

   Two thoughts:

   • For wall-mounted outlets, I use Plugmold; mine's about 5' long and has maybe 10 or 12 outlets (sorry, I'm not in my shop). You can get it at most big box home improvement stores, and smaller hardware stores will special order it if they don't stock it.  It plugs into an existing outlet, and I use it for battery chargers, the grinder, occasionally the shop vac, the shop radio :-) and other relatively small-power consumption items.
   • I have a dedicated "strip" for my power tools which hangs from a reel attached to a joist and is on a separate breaker. The 30' reel has 3 outlets at the end, and can easily handle my tablesaw and shop vac, or pretty much any 2 tools (I haven't tried 3) working simultaneously.  A word of caution from experience: the first reel I had came with a 13 amp integral breaker, which would trip each time I tried to use the table saw and shop vac simultaneously. Since I've got a 20 amp breaker for my tools, that was just a PITA bottleneck. So get a 12 guage reel with no breaker on it if you decide to go that route.

   Hope this helps,

   Mitch