Extension Cord / Breakout box
Posted: Tue Feb 01, 2022 7:46 pm
I hate using power strips. So, several years back I built some breakout boxes. I've built a couple for myself and a few for other folks.
Since I have an acoustic gig coming up and my breakout boxes are in the trailer, I decided to build another one to keep in the garage for one-off situations. I mean, after all, it takes at least 2 minutes to open the trailer and get one......so, why not build another one and save all that time and frustration, right?
Did I mention I was bored and looking for something to do? I did fix a couple of drum mics for a guy this morning - that took 10 minutes.......
If you haven't built any of these, you should. I got the parts from Home Depot. I wanted to do black, but they had NO 14/3 or 12/3 bulk cable. So, I just went with a 25ft Rigid Extension cord. Typically I only use 12ga for power, but this one will be doing really light duty, so I saved a few bucks and went with the 14ga. I could have gone cheaper on the cord, but the orange/black stripe Rigid cables are supple and lay flat - so it's worth the extra bucks.
The box is just a standard shallow 2-gang box. You'll need a 4 outlet top plate, two outlets, and a clamp-on fitting.
Started by installing the outlets to the top plate. Once that's done, then you put jumpers between the two outlets. I had a piece of 14ga Romex laying around, so I used that to connect 'em. Some people don't know that the outlets have push-in connectors on the back. Just shove in the solid Romex wire and you're done.
I put a couple of layers of heat shrink on the cord to keep it from wearing on the connector and to give it a little more girth. it's a pain to try and get the stranded wire from the ext. cord on the same screw terminal with a solid wire, so I use a solid jumper on the grounds and soldered the ground wire to it. My soldering iron was already out, so it was easier than the frustration of trying to get it all under that one screw.
I put the clamp connector with the screws to the inside - just looks a little cleaner that way and you won't get jabbed with one of the screw ends when you handle it.
And that's it. Easy little project that gets rid of those power strips. Grab a 50 footer and build two of 'em. Total price was $40.03. But, about $32 of that was the ext. cord. The box, cover, and outlets were only about 5 bucks. I already had a bag of the clamps.
Anyway, that's my project for the day. Thursday and Friday are gonna' be cold here, so it will be "inside" time.
Since I have an acoustic gig coming up and my breakout boxes are in the trailer, I decided to build another one to keep in the garage for one-off situations. I mean, after all, it takes at least 2 minutes to open the trailer and get one......so, why not build another one and save all that time and frustration, right?
Did I mention I was bored and looking for something to do? I did fix a couple of drum mics for a guy this morning - that took 10 minutes.......
If you haven't built any of these, you should. I got the parts from Home Depot. I wanted to do black, but they had NO 14/3 or 12/3 bulk cable. So, I just went with a 25ft Rigid Extension cord. Typically I only use 12ga for power, but this one will be doing really light duty, so I saved a few bucks and went with the 14ga. I could have gone cheaper on the cord, but the orange/black stripe Rigid cables are supple and lay flat - so it's worth the extra bucks.
The box is just a standard shallow 2-gang box. You'll need a 4 outlet top plate, two outlets, and a clamp-on fitting.
Started by installing the outlets to the top plate. Once that's done, then you put jumpers between the two outlets. I had a piece of 14ga Romex laying around, so I used that to connect 'em. Some people don't know that the outlets have push-in connectors on the back. Just shove in the solid Romex wire and you're done.
Anyway, that's my project for the day. Thursday and Friday are gonna' be cold here, so it will be "inside" time.