Until today, my basement workshop was an obstacle course. Woodworking requires a good amount of power tools, many of them handheld and powered by extension cord. So naturally, I had a few extensions cords running across the floor. As if that wasn’t enough hazard, I noticed that one of them had been sliced through halfway, most likely by a tool that I had laid on top of it.
Beyond the hazards, it’s just plain inconvenient to work with extension cords lying across the floor, as the wrap around objects and get caught on just about everything.
I was at home depot today getting supplies and just happened to come across the retractable extension cords. I had seen these before but never really wanted to spend the money. Well, I was in the right mood today. For just $25, I now have a retractable cord hanging from my workshop ceiling that sports 3 outlets.
While I was at the store, I had to make an assumption though, one that I verified once I returned home. That assumption was that all of my hand tools were under the maximum load that the retractable cord could handle. I had purchased a 16 gauge cord, which is even smaller than the lowest household circuit, typically now only used for lighting – the 14 gauge.
It’s important to verify this, as the 16 gauge cord was only capable of support tools that require less than 1600 watts. Any more than that and two things can happen:
- The tool sustains damage over the long term as it can’t grab the power it needs.
- The cord overheats.
Naturally, you save a good deal of money when opting for the 16 gauge retractable extension cord. Even moving up to a 14 gauge put me in the $65+ range.
When I got home to install, I also realized that I had lent out my wood boring bit, so I could not run the extension cord that leads from the retractable cord to the wall outlet through my floor joists. I decided to temporarily run it across the bottom of the joists as shown below.
Arguably, this is against code, or at least would be with household wiring. The National Electric Code is concerned with safety above all, and does not allow for smaller gauge wires to be run across the bottom of floor joists unless protected. Perhaps that are concerned with people bumping them, or worse, hanging something on them!
So, at least temporarily, I’ve replaced one hazard for another. If you are going to do this, do it right and drill holes through your floor joists for the extension cord. Or, better yet, put an outlet in next to the retractable cord.
Actually it’s probably not code compliant to connect two or more extension cords end to end – best to install an outlet box next to your cord reel.
Couldn’t agree more (see my last paragraph in the article).