SawStop 3 HP PCS Unpacking/Review: Part 2 - Power

The SawStop 3 HP PCS ships with a 9' power cord installed, and that power cord has a NEMA 6-15 plug on the end. I was fortunate that I already had a drop for 220 in my shop, and it happened that I had not had a need for it previously. It appears that it was originally installed for a dryer, but I don't know that it was ever used. It had a NEMA 10-30 receptacle wired up, which didn't do me much good. I opened up the box and was pleased to find that it did have 4 conductors (ground, neutral and 2 hots) to the box. So, I was going to be able to borrow the following idea from Paul-Marcel at http://www.halfinchshy.com/

The plug on the SawStop itself. I added a receptacle
this, as well as 2 110 outlets, in a 2 gang box that
mounts to the saw.

While I'm at it, I'll also borrow Paul-Marcel's disclaimer - I'm not an electrician, but I'm comfortable with the steps involved here and have worked with electrical wiring before. If you aren't comfortable doing this, don't understand a step, etc. consult a professional!

So having removed the old receptacle I was ready for a new one that would actually fit my needs. I went with the L14-30. It's a 4 conductor locking receptacle rated for 30 amps. The circuit I am working with is 30 amps, so that's a good fit.

Once the new receptacle was wired and tested I set out to put together my cord and electrical box at the saw itself. My local big box store had a 25' Rigid generator cord that seemed like it would fit the bill nicely. I checked Harbor Freight, but they weren't carrying anything close to what I needed. I went with the Rigid, which was going to be longer than necessary, but the alternative (getting a custom cut section of 4 conductor 10 gauge wire) was going to be needlessly expensive. I cut the Rigid to length - about 10 ft - and stripped back the case to expose the 4 wires inside; green, white, red and black in this case. I ran the exposed wires into a 2 gang metal box and wired up a 1 gang 110 outlet (black for the hot, white for the neutral and green for the ground) as well as a 6-15 220 outlet to match the SawStop plug (black and red for hot, green for ground).  I ended up getting some specialized push-in wire nuts that would accomodate up to 3 10 gauge wires (solid or stranded). Regular wire nuts get to be a pain to work with for that large of wire, and I wanted to make sure I had really good connections here. I had to have those nuts special-ordered, so I was forced to wait an extra day to get everything running. Once installed, everything tested out, so I plugged the saw in and fired it up. NICE.

This is the box that will mount to the saw (once the cabinet
underneath is complete). You can see the SawStop is plugged in
and the 110's are still open.