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I am preparing to install an electric powder coating oven. It needs to be fed 3 phase which runs the elements. It also has a fractional hp fan motor, light and the control box which are single phase so they tap one of the hots and also need a neutral wire. That is all factory wired. My service...

This is a picture of a basement that a friend of mine had a contractor do. It was poured right before a hard freeze and the footer was not covered which I believe led to frost heave and the cracking. The top cracks widened up to the point that you can clearly see there is no rebar over the...

I was just checking out the electrical work being done in a friends pole barn. The electrician is using UF cable for the lighting and receptacles, the drops are in conduit up to about 12' high then it's left exposed on the high walls and underside of the roof. Is that a proper use for UF? And...

Does it matter which way you orient sheetrock across the studs? On vertical stud walls I usually see it laid horizontal so the long axis crosses the studs. I'm getting ready to rock my office/showroom walls, they are just over 10' tall and the framing is horizontal between posts. If I was to...

Okay it's time for me to pick a boiler for my radiant floor. Natural gas is not available so it's propane or electric. Without going into BTU per gallon and BTU per KW calculations and just using the calculator here: http://www.builditsolar.com/References/Calculators/Fuels/FuelCompare.htm...

I'll be doing my interior walls and ceiling with metal roofing panels. Just wondering if there's anything in particular that works well for trimming out inside corners and where wall meets ceiling, also around doors and windows. Are there flashing profiles other than just an angle that work well...

A question for those of you who have used a blow in insulation machine like they have at Lowes or HD. What's it like to use? If I do some blow in it will be above a 40x60 area with 17' ceiling height. First how much hose can it run? I'd like to just have one access hatch at the corner of the...

I'm finishing out a 80' wide x 60' deep pole building for my shop. The center bay is 40' wide x 60' deep x 16' tall, I'm putting a flat metal ceiling and either blow in or bats on top of it. (R38) The attic space above is vented, that area is no problem. The dilema starts with the 2 side bays...

Can anyone explain what a Joule is? And not the kind your wife wants and you can't afford. Looking at electric fence chargers they are rated in Joules, from around 2 up to 12 seems to be common. I know watts and volts but joules is new to me.

I've got a pile of T-12 fixtures (2 bulb 4') that apparently have bad ballasts. They were HD cheapos. Is it worth changing to the T-8 ballast? Any idea of cost? Does the new ballast have to be for a specific fixture or are they generic? The cost of new T-8's seems to be coming down but I thought...

First off I'm not exactly new to metal fab so I DO know better. This morning it was a little colder so I put on an extra layer of clothes topped off with a hooded sweatshirt. You know the kind with the little drawstrings hanging down in front? Grabbed a little 4" grinder with a cut wheel and...

Next spring I'll be putting in some concrete piers for a large engineered steel truss building with fabric cover. The piers are like an upside down mushroom, 4'x4'x1' tall at the bottom with a 2'x2'x3' tall section coming up to grade level. I've got the rebar schedule and a plan for embeded...

I need to build some lighted signs that will be outdoors. Basically they will be a metal enclosure with lettering cut into it and a colored transparent lens of some type over the letters. Lighting will be inside so letters show up in the dark. What I'm looking for is suggestions on the...

Here's the scenario: 4-12 pitch metal roof over OSB, vented and un heated attic space. I'm wondering if it's possible or practical to put some runs of pex under the OSB for snowmelt. It seems like you wouldn't need a lot of heat, if there was just enough to start melting the bottom of the snow...

Here is a couple pics of an oven I'm looking at for powder coating. As you can see it's currently wired for high voltage (440,460,480v) three phase. In my new building I have 208 three phase so it would need to be reconnected for the low voltage option. Should anything else need to be changed...

Here's a couple of garden gates from this week. Assuming that I did the pics right and they show up. If not, never mind.:)

I've got an intermitent flicker of all the lights on one circuit. It doesn't seem to be coinciding with other loads starting or shutting off. I've replaced the breaker and verified good connections in the panel. Is there a way to test and locate the problem or do I just have to do the shotgun...

I'm setting up a piece of machinery and the manufacturer suggests verifying a good ground like this: "Connect a 100 watt bulb between 120 VAC hot and the ground you are testing. Then measure voltage between 120 VAC neutral and the ground, voltage should be below 0.75 volts" I did that and get...

Does anybody know the reason PVC waterline is not allowed inside a building? It seems like it's the waterline of choice for underground but local code says it can't come inside the foundation.

I want to bring a line for phone and DSL into my shop. The existing house service is over 500' away. Can that be done by tapping into the house phone wiring or would the phone company's primary lines need to be extended? Any details on what kind of cable, etc... would be appreciated. Or if...