Ask Adam Savage: Shop Power Distribution and How NOT to Lose Tools | Adam Savage’s Tested

Steve C. asks, Do you have three phase power in your shop? And has that been an issue? And actually, there's another power question. Hold on. Yes. Shane Schellenbarger says, How much do you need to modify your circuit breaker box wiring and outlets in order to accommodate various tools? Lots. Yes, I have three phase power in this shop. The big three phase leg comes over here so that it powers the lathe and the mill I've got. So that was the first tap I put in. My my power distro has plenty of power for this space. It's actually the space is almost underutilized in the power distro. So, yeah, when I got the lathe and I hired an electrician to come in and run conduit over there and drop a 223 phase outlet. And then when the mill came in, when the well, not this mill, but the other mill, when that came in, I also dropped another leg for that. My disc sander is three phase, but I have a two to three phase converter on that one simply because they don't really need to drop power over there. The three two to three phase converter doesn't have a hundred percent duty cycle like it'll only run for six minutes before it'll crap out. I will tell you, in the entire 13 years I've had that disc sander, I have never run it for six minutes. That just is always like a minute or two at a time. So I don't leave it running electricity in the shop. I want to caution you to be careful because when I think of some of the things I did in my youth in terms of power distribution in the shop, I'm a little bit shamefaced. I, I made the same mistakes we all do. I used wiring gauges that were too small. You know, from a power distribution standpoint, extension cords should mostly be banned. You don't want to use tons of them. And of course, we all use extension cords. But in general, if you wanted a rule of thumb, it would be use the fattest wires for the biggest tools. Try not to run everything off of power strips. You will you will eventually run into some pain. I had this whole thing over here where I had like four tools running off of the same power strip. And every time I turned two of them on, it would blow out. And then, you know, that kind of stuff is it's a boring slowdown. Hiring an electrician costs real money. I won't lie. And it is possible to run the power yourself to code if you are handy. It is not too difficult to do, although it is a refined art form in the hands of a professional. I just I can't recommend enough paying for your power distribution. If you need three phase power, go ahead and put it in. It is a you know, it'll be a tough hit right now. And you will always be happy to have the extra power leg. And now I actually have one other three phase to 20 power leg over there where the welding areas. I say welding area. I don't weld in this shop. There's too much dust. I don't have enough protection. It is terrifying to weld in here. And I'm literally doing a project right now using copper pipe specifically because I just don't have the space or the the the I have too much crap in the way to weld. So I'm hand building this thing out of copper because it's easier and I can braise it here much more safely. I don't like my my my MIG welder spitting sparks all over the place. It's just terrifying. Blair Connor, this came up just yesterday, Blair. You mentioned first order retrieve ability fairly often. But what about everything else? Any recommendations on how to store, organize, retrieve, and perhaps most importantly, not lose those items that aren't in the first order realm? It happens more than I care to admit that I need to repurchase things because I can't find where I stored them. This is the problem. And what you're talking about is not the categorical storage, right? Because if you have a bunch of machinists box, but you can put them all together on a shelf and there they are and you know where they are and you can go get them off that shelf. Anything you have a bunch of is much easier to store. But as makers in this specific realm, I have so many things that are in in objects that are in a category of one that it makes me crazy. And I lose them all the time. And just yesterday, I spent 40 minutes looking for my three quarter inch conduit bender. And I'll tell you a secret. I have two other conduit benders. This one I bought because I couldn't find those. And I just had this like sense memory that I had left this over in the corner of the lane. And sure enough, there it was. But that wasn't like where it's supposed to go. In fact, the first place I looked for it was where it lives now. And that's the trick. So when you have something like a conduit bender and you don't have other benders and you don't have other things like it and you only have one of these and you need it like I mean, I use this thing once every three or four years. So where does it live? Well, what was the first place I looked for it? I looked for it over by my. I looked for it over by this tubing vendor, and I just thought, well, maybe I was clever and put all the tubing vendors together. The answer was, no, I wasn't clever, but now I am. So when you have an object that is in a category of one, actually, it doesn't even matter that it's in a category of one. If you have something and you are wondering where to put it, ask yourself, where would I look for it if I was holding on to it right now? Sorry, I just noticed that the table of my portable bandsaw is all bad. Yeah, it looks like something hit it. Anyway, where was I? If you are wondering where to store something, some group of things, some box of stuff, ask yourself where you would look for it if you needed it right now and then go with first thought, best thought to quote Allen Ginsberg. First thought, best thought. Put it there where your brain first lighted. Not the second, not the first, but a little step. The first thought you put it there. I will tell you, there's so much stuff I no longer lose because I follow that axiom religiously. Kevin Kelly even borrowed that one. Kevin Kelly is a good friend, and every year he releases on his birthday a list of things that he thinks are important to know by this age. And it is always a gold mine of stunning and wonderful things to know. Kevin is a giant intellect and one of those forest gumps of the Internet helps start the whole Earth catalog, help founded Wired magazine and a truly gentle and amazing soul. And when he and I were talking about that, he loved that one. And he has tons of other wonderful shop practice shop practice ideas like that. Thank you so much for watching. If you'd like to support us even further, you can by becoming a tested member. Details are, of course, below, but it includes all sorts of perks and we're building them all the time. You get advanced word and behind the scenes photos of some of our projects. Questions you get to ask direct questions during my live streams. And we have some members only videos, including the Adam real time series of unbroken, unedited shots of me working here in the shop. They are weirdly meditative. Thank you guys so much. I'll see you on the next one.