As often happens, an innocent tool upgrade has had far-reaching repurcussions in the shop. Found a deal on a new air compressor (sale price + coupon + gift cards = oh yeah), and that created the need for a new 220V electrical line to it's new location in the garage. My shop circuits were fed from my main house panel, and that's sub-optimal in a few ways. It's a long run for wire from the panel to the shop, the breaker slots are almost full (although I could always retrofit tandems), and that doesn't easily permit cutting off power to the shop to protect curious little kiddies.
So I finally decided to bite the bullet and install a new subpanel that feeds the shop. The subpanel cures all the ills above, but it's not a trivial task and with today's copper prices it's not cheap. So we bought a panel, #6 feeder cable, and a few odds and ends and took the time to rewire all the power to the shop. All is now done, and I'm glad I spent the money and time. I've got new capacity for growth (not sure why I'll need that though...), but the best part is with the flip of one switch I can cut power to the entire shop. Makes me feel much safer now that the rugrats can't go accidentally pressing pretty green switches on daddies big shop tools.
