If you’re running 220 and using that white wire as a hot instead, you need to mark it red so that the next guy doesn’t make a stupid mistake. The point here is that an electrician will treat the white wire as neutral and therefore safe. You can do this with liquid tape, red electrical tape, or my choice, red heat shrink. #220 volt outlet codeIn my area, this is perfectly find and up to code as long as you mark the white wire with red. For tools, as I said, this generally does not apply. You need 12-3 for the aforementioned case where you have an appliance requiring both 220 and 110 volts. You can get 12-3 wire, which is a bit more expensive, but has two hots (one black, one red), a ground (unsheathed), and a neutral (white). For a 110 outlet, it’s enough to simply buy standard 12-2 Romex, which has a hot (black), a neutral (white), and a ground wire (unsheathed). For 30 amps, I’d move up to a 10 gauge wire. As I said, I chose 12 gauge to match my 20 amp circuit. I’ll just add a note here about Romex wiring. For 20 amps, 12 gauge wiring is appropriate. This needs to be sized to the breaker and outlet as well. Details are outside the scope of this article. For a 110 circuit, I would absolutely do this, but the same concept doesn’t carry over to 220. Note that I did not get a Ground Fault Circuit Interrupter (GFCI) outlet. There are also multiple styles of circuit breaker, so I had to be sure to match the same type as what was already in the breaker box. (This is much more common with kitchen appliances than tools.) Also be aware that different outlets are rated for different maximum power. It shouldn’t matter which you use as long as you’re consistent, unless your equipment also requires 110V power. There are multiple styles of 220 outlet, but the linked 6-20R is a very common plug type for woodworking equipment. There’s a slight danger in going too big, in that a breaker may not trip when it needs to, but this amount of oversizing shouldn’t cause any problems. Breakers this small for 220 aren’t very common, so I went ahead and sized up to 20 amps. In my case, I knew my loads would be 7-10 amps. These need to be sized for the required load. Also required is a 220 outlet and 220 circuit breaker.
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