Ben Franklin's Silk Hankie

First things first. I have done work on the Falcon for the first time since I moved to Michigan. It's been a busy year and a half. Initially I had planned to make this a giant post about the garage and the car, but I think I'm gonna separate the topics.

How I feel when I wire an outlet and it doesn't start on fire.

Since August, I have been working on garage electrical in my free time. Electrical (to me at least) is one of those things that seems simple, and then I find out not only is it not simple, but it is very time consuming.  I now know that there is a very good reason electrical work costs so much.

I started out with this electrical layout plan I made in SketchUp. There were a few minor deviations from the plan, but for the most part, this is what I ended up with.

I rented a trencher from Home Depot. The heavy clay soil made this job a lot tougher than I expected.

Fin.

I then ran 2 conduits in the trench, one for power, and a spare for futureproofing, in case I decide to run a data cable or something like that.

This is the conduit to the main panel.

Main Panel connection. Had to move around a couple breakers and add some tandem breakers to maker room.

Sub-panel with feeder connected.

Lights! I ended up with 11 4 ft T8 fixtures and LED bulbs. Even without drywall, it's pretty bright.

The inspector saved me from myself! he had me replace a couple boxes because they had too many wires in them. That extra 2.2 cubic inches is going to keep me extra safe.

Plenty of outlets on the back wall.

Finally, the finished sub-panel.

I ended up running a 60A 240V feeder, with 3 20A circuits for 120v outlets, a 15A circuit for lights, a 30A 240V circuit for an electric heater, and 2 50A 240V circuits for welder or potential future EV charger.  I'm not totally finished wiring the outlets but the shop is useable. Stay tuned for actual Falcon updates!