Electric Upgrades

I was looking at what the final end result everyone was wanting out of
the electrical upgrades. I know we need power to the new 3D printer,
and preferably a proper 220v feed to the welder(and air compressor?).
Where do we want the welder located? Also, are there any other
receptacles needed?

While talking to my co-worker, he said he doesn't think we will gain
much from a dedicated sub-panel. There are 6 open breaker slots in our
current panel, and would be much cheaper to utilize those. I'm just
looking for what we all want so I can get a good price from him.

I was looking at what the final end result everyone was wanting out of
the electrical upgrades. I know we need power to the new 3D printer,
and preferably a proper 220v feed to the welder(and air compressor?).
Where do we want the welder located? Also, are there any other
receptacles needed?

ive seen the welder in use near the heavy duty work benches (aka:
right where the plug is now)

perhaps a map should be marked up on Monday's and Tuesday's mtgs.

While talking to my co-worker, he said he doesn't think we will gain
much from a dedicated sub-panel. There are 6 open breaker slots in our
current panel, and would be much cheaper to utilize those. I'm just
looking for what we all want so I can get a good price from him.

future additions would be much easier with a sub panel. sub also
provides an quick and easy to access OMGSHUTITDOWNNOW switch in case
someone trips and sticks a screwdriver in the 220.

I would say a plug by the back door would be nice, that way when we are welding we only have to block the view from one direction, and we won’t be in the way of everyone using that plug in the middle of the space. Over on that side of the room the floor is still metal so we don’t need to worry about it burning the floor.

We have a to-scale map courtesy of Jim:
http://wiki.hive13.org/Floorplan

Also if I dig around I can probably find the *.svg & *.dxf versions of the map.

Any further progress on this? If possible I'd like to get the work
quoted out so we can set a time frame for install.

I think a good place to start if we want to figure out locations for
outlets would be to first plot out the current power outlets in the
hackerspace and how many are on each circuit breaker. With that
information we can more easily determine where the extra power is
needed.

I think there are two locations we can all agree on right now. We
need a 20 amp, 120v in the fab lab, and there is the freestanding
pillar in the woodworking area that has the screwed up neutral line.

I can update our map of the space to have locations for outlets,
however I do not have the equipment (or know-how) to figure out if
those outlets all go back to the same breaker switch (I guess I could
just put lights on each one and start flipping breakers...)

Also, from how I understand the situation, here is pretty much the steps we need to take to go forward on this:

  1. Determine current electrical distribution of the hackerspace
  2. Using information from #1, determine where we need or want additional power (up to 6x outlets)
  3. Using layout from #2 determine an accurate price and installation plan, and either release funds from treasury or host a pledgie to raise funds
  4. Set up a timeline (schedule work dates) for installation off of the plan established in #3 using funds we either raise or release.

Possibility, although I was more thinking on the lines of just
agreeing on what we want, then have the person who will do the work
make the assessment on what we need to make it happen.

I still think we need something in the “dirty room” for both the welder and the foundry once that project gets back underway. (Jon and I were discussing materials we need to purchase just this week) These items need a permanent place so they are easily accessible. They will get a LOT more use if you can walk up and use them instead of having to spend 20-30 minutes preparing a work area.

–Ed

So far, I have a receptacle at the back door, one in the fab lab (both dedicated circuits). We could probably do a single 220v receptacle in the dirty room (with a disconnect to satisfy the oh S*** scenario). Is there anything else I am missing?

Actually, I’m not so sure about the 220v in the dirty room. The foundry will not be running back there/inside at all and after talking the idea for welding seems like the game stuff may be moving to get away from the dust, the CNC machines that are there now, etc. I agree with paul that we need to map out what is in the space right now, figure out what we will be running where and places where we want power for the future, and then go from there. Right now we have a general idea of a few outlets that we want, but not all that would be good to put in.

Jon

Could this be a topic for the board meeting, and possibly send me the map once it’s talked about? It may even be a topic for a meeting. Once we have an idea down on paper we can stick to it and proceed.

I agree, this sounds like a topic for Tuesday.

The overall topic is more suited to the Tuesday meeting rather than
the board meeting as more input from the member base would give a
better idea as to what would benefit us as a whole. I will bring it
up Saturday but I'd rather have a solid foundation laid out by the end
of the meeting Tuesday. At this point I feel we've given plenty of
time to deliver input on the issue. At some point we'll just have to
finalize a plan and execute it.

I have attached two files to this email:

  • Hive13_Floorplan.dxf is the wonderful 2d drawing of the hackerspace created by Jim
  • Floorplan_CurrentSetup.pdf has the following information in it:
  • Existing Outlets (I did not map out what outlets are connected to each other)
  • Existing electrical tools and infrastructure (I might have missed some stuff, this was done from memory)
  • Possible AC unit locations
  • 3 possible new power drops- Floorplan_CurrentSetup.svg is the svg source file I created w/ Inkscape if people want to play around with it.
    We have space for 3 more power drops, however since I do not know which outlets are connected together, I do not know where would be an optimal drop for those outlets.

Hive13_Floorplan.dxf (36.8 KB)

Floorplan_CurrentSetup.pdf (31.5 KB)

Floorplan_CurrentSetup.svg

It looks like power is needed for a couple of the new AC units. (the units in 1D & 3C don’t appear to have any power near them) Does anyone have a tester so we can figure out which outlets are fed off the same breaker? The load in the kitchen as well as 1C would be the other two concerns…

–Ed

I can most likely get a circuit tracer. I’m not sure how soon I can get down there. I can try to shoot for next week. My son was just born, so things are pretty crazy around the house. I’ll post later in the week if it looks like I’ll make it down.

Congrats Tye! If you do get a chance to bring it down I am pretty free on a few days and I could come down and help if I would be a help at all. Hope everything calms down for you soon!

Jon