@@andrewgordonjardine2632 likely not needed as many mains power tools are earthed to their own chassis, thats why even in the UK where the fully earthed electrics are the basic standard now, you will still find mains drills and so on often only have live and neutral in the plug if you crack it open.
I'm always grateful when the editor takes the time to compress the loud noises. It seems like such a small thing until you watch a video where that hasn't been done and you have to scramble for the volume controls so you don't wake the entire house. @@SpaceSoups TH-cam's subtitle generator tends to think machines are either [applause] or [music]. Occasionally, you might get various thoughtful and/or confused noises -- "hmm" and "uh", for example. Interestingly, I've never seen it think a tool is [screaming].
Nice video and love that you showed how easy this is to do! But... The third wire should be used for ground and connected to the metal housing at the switch end, and connected to the ground and casing at the machine end. This will provide operator protection against a live short anywhere in the system. This is especially important where you are physically connecting two parts of your body to a device (insulated boots or otherwise) with live current and potentially providing electricity with a route passing through your heart. Some kind of rubber grommet should also be used to provide at least some protection against spilled liquids and swarf from entering the switch body and causing shorts.
When he said, I’m sure you’ve been yelling at the screen the whole time, I thought well at least he heard me, but I was in my head yelling about grounding long before he figured out the relay lol. I’m not an electrician, so don’t take my advice, but if this was a project I was doing for me, my two cents on his wiring are this: • Take a 15’ 3 prong extension cord of the appropriate gauge wiring. Measure about 3’ from the female end of the wire and cut it off. • Install appropriate strain relief clamp to open end of electrical box on foot switch, pass both cut ends of cable into box and strip all wires. • Male plug on an extension cord brings in power to the switch. •Female end of an extension cord leaves the switch. You plug in any devices using the foot switch to this. • Inside the foot switch box: ° Combine the two neutrals with a wire nut and electric tape it up. ° Connect the power in (black cable) from the male extension cord to the input of the foot switch, the one closest to the foot pedal. ° Connect the black cable from the female extension cord to the middle lug (the normally open lug) ° Ground the metal box junction box and combine all grounds with a wire nut and tape together like you did the neutral wires. This should bring three ground wires together. • Gently remove excess slack from electrical box as appropriate, and firmly secure tension relief, being carefully not to over tighten and crush cables. Doing it the way I described allows you to be able to easily plug/unplug devices so you can use it around the shop as desired. It should give some degree of safety in case a cable comes lose and shorts to the metal box and energizes the metal foot switch. It should also allow you to retain the use of the existing on/off switch or your device so you can turn it off there when not using and not accidentally step on the switch to energize the machine. I was somewhat disappointed that a person I see being generally safe and thinking through their problem solving was otherwise pretty unsafe in this video with their wiring approach. A lot of people watch these and regardless and copy your instructions.
@@adamdowney the lack of grounding is his choice given it’s a private shop but he is also doing a video on electrical wiring so I feel he shouldn’t ignore it either for the sake of giving good information. I am also not a fan how he strips back the cable sheathing as it’s much better to cut down the sheathing and pull it apart than across it and risk cutting into the wires but at least he addresses the need to be careful when doing that.
It looks like he wired it in place of the old switch. Do we know if the old switch was wired in-line with AC power, or was it just a leg off the bandsaw's built in switch mechanism? I'm asking because I assume the built in switch is a relay and doesn't need grounding protection.
I use footswitches all the time, for all sorts of different applications. When I was a 911 dispatcher, we had foot switches to key up the radio and muting the phone, so that both hands were open for typing. In my present life as a broadcast engineer, I have wired them for resetting countdown timers for TV break control, for triggering video switcher transitions, and intercom. Usually the intercom is hot all the time, so in that use case, it acts a a mute or 'cough drop' so you don't cough of send too many expletives down the line!
One of my favorite "shop hacks" for stripping wire I learned from FIL, a sewing seam ripper. It works on a lot of gauges and is an easy, safe way to strip the outer sheath.
Hahaha!, Love it: I was literally yelling at the screen to connect the common to the normal closed, then he spoke to me. Love this foot switch, I want one… I guess I need space for a workshop first 😅
I would have added a cord to plug into the wall and the a cord to plug in the tool that way the foot switch is more universal and can be use with almost any tool if needed. This would also not require an modification to the existing tool. I love this build and this is a great idea.
I utterly love the way you talk to yourself as such to make sure everything is correct. I do the same. I also love the moving around fast to find everything. Please know I llove seeing this in a person. So real and gods.. so very true of many if not all of us out there. Keep being you . Silly word from the Shetland Isles in Scotland. 200 miles north of Aberdeen. Great in the summer on the nice days but freezzing in, like today. 7 Celsius but wind chill of 1 or -1 lol :P
Sometimes they can be a bit jarring for me, but I do like the cuts that allow Adam to warp across spacetime instantaneously. For some reason those are immensely satisfying, especially when cleaning or gathering. It's a 4th-dimensional montage sequence!
I do bicycle fabrication and the shop I work in has foot switches on all the drill presses, grinders and belt Sanders. It's definitely my favorite little feature because you can start and stop all the tools while holding your Steel or Ti tubing with both hands.
My Dremel is hooked up to a switch pedal that's older than I am, and I'm not a young'un! Dad got it for me at a yard sale for two dollars. LOVE that thing.
@@GoingApeCostume ....You can just buy them...... u cant just buy something you havent thought about or been exposed to. thanks for your input. like if you dint know the name to a "Chicago bolt" to make a paracord fib.
When Adam dropped the foot switch and said “that’s enough out of you“. It reminded me of how I like to verbally quiet the ovens at work when they’re blaring ”I’m done”! Like I walk up going “all right, all right geez Calm down”.
Watching you work in your shop is like looking into a mirror when I'm working on my musical gear. All the ADHD pinballing, all the train-of-thought jumps. Thank you for making me feel like I'm not super crazy.
Adam/Tested, the wiring as you have shown it in that switch box is unsafe, as no earth connection is made to the metal enclosure. A fault in the switch or wire, or debris entering the box could cause the housing to become live risking electrocution to the operator. I appreciate that this is more regulated in Europe than America due to the higher voltage, and that this failure is unlikely, but there is still risk of harm. Apart from that I like that this is more safe than typical rocker switches as it acts like a deadman switch.
A couple others have said it, but I would definitely feel more comfortable if that pedal was grounded. Especially without a regular strain relief in place to isolate the cord movement from the connections, there’s a lot of potential for the wires or crimps to work themselves loose or wear through the insulation over time. [Not an electrician, but a commercial coffee equipment tech] Also, did I spy a box of Knipex goodies back there?
I knew it! They exist. Because why not. I just finished mine yesterday from a doorbell case connected in a power outlet for my rotary tool. Made it easier to turn on and off.
Just can't believe how doesn't Adam hurt himself or brake the tools as there is always a great amount of fiddle going on 😂 Master level of controlling the chaos.
Hilarious! I just finished watching part two of the build of the enclosure for that band saw and I watched all that milling of the speed control SCREAMING FOOT SWITCH for the whole thing! In fact I commented on the other video about that and specifically found this after searching "Tested foot switch"! I have to watch a lot of videos to be ahead of you on your solutions - but this time I wish I had been watching the housing build live to yell FOOT SWITCH!
I love to watch US shop wiring. Here in Germany we would use a Motor Safety Switch with a separate connection for an external switch or at least a relais so the footswitch wouldn't see the full power of the motor all the time. Regards, Etna.
Man you'd go absolutely insane if you looked at some of the residential wiring here in the states, specifically in rural areas. A lot of houses in my area that were built in the 50s and 60s show huge amounts of electrical incompetence. For example, in my bedroom when I was 15, I could take the chain for the light in the ceiling fan, touch it to the slightly exposed metal base of the light bulb, and the light would turn on. One whole half the house was wired to a single 15 amp circuit breaker as well. That's not to mention our actual standards. You couldn't try to design a plug that's more unsafe than what we use. Then we use extension cords with thin little wires in them. They get warm if you plug anything too big into them. Our 220 setups are usually a bit safer with locking plugs (no insulation on the base of the prongs though) and the plugs themselves aren't usually in easily accessible places.
Best bandsaw noises ever! Foot switches are safer too, if something goes sideways your first instinct is usually to step back. I made a company I worked for install one on a 3 roll mill (3 counter rotating steel cylinders with very little clearance between them, a scary machine to operate!). A guy got fired because he was putting a can of paint on it to keep it running while he did other stuff lol.
Back when I was making a LOT of cat-5 cables at work, we had an amazing little tool that looked kind of like a cigar cutter. You'd open the thing, put the cable in the hole, close it, then spin it around the cable and it would put a lovely score all around the sheath that could then easily be snapped off. Because the blade was angled, you could chose from two different depths of score depending on which way you rotated (or you could just spin around more than once). Found it! The "Cyclops 2 UTP Cable Jacket Stripper". Definitely a unitasking device but great to have if that's what you're doing.
So glad you mounted the switch to the floor. You really only make a semi-deadman-switch if it's stuck to your boot as you're diving for cover from flying metal. Excellent safety feature and probably pretty convenient for you.
Not sure if that switch is switching directly on mains, but if it is, with a metal enclosure it probably would've been sensible to use the ground wire too 🤔
@@spiranomad Yes but still a class 1 mains appliance, so it really needs to be grounded, so that if say tramp metal gets in through that missing gland, and shorts out the wires, the GFCI would operate before Adam becomes a glow in the dark ornament.
@@MSP_TechLab There is, I have even seen the grounding bolt position on pneumatic foot switches, because there are areas which they are used in that are required to be intrinsically safe, and thus, even though there is no electric connection, there is still a risk of a spark arising, so all metal in those areas needs to be ground bonded. Even the all plastic bodied ones have the moulding in them to accept a ground wire, just to hold it in position to carry through the chain.
Right, the pedal had a ground lug and it wasn’t used. Not a great practice, especially after the lecture on nicking insulation… Funny that it was actually equal or extra effort to not use it after he added the spade connector and later cut it off.
I use that striping trick myself, it's especially effective when the outer insulation is cold because the act of bending the cable after the initial knife scoring will actually do the stripping for you, and it happens much faster because it's a bit more brittle. It was extremely useful when stripping low voltage data cable for outside, in ground pool automation systems.
Sounds like what I do. I bend the cable and start cutting slowly. That pressure causes it to finish pulling the insulation apart when you cut away enough of it without having to actually cut all the way through. Then you just pull it from the end and it slides off with a little effort.
Try cutting along the cable lightly then pull the inner wires apart from the cable starting at the end. It’s fast and for all but the heaviest cable works very well.
@@richardh6964 good for you. I don't know any electrician that use that technique. Low voltage wires are likely to break if you do that kind of thing, as the copper conductor has a lower tensile strength that the insulation that surrounds the internal wires. I'm of the opinion that if there's the possibility of breaking the continuity of the wires, don't do it. Cheers.
Man, I just love the way Adam grabs and drops things lol, so fast, so hard, cracks me up everytime. I've been wanting to install a foot switch to my mill press for so long! I guess it's time!
As an electrician, HOOK THE DAMN GROUND WIRE UP If you just get a heavy duty extension cord and put the foot switch in it then you don't have to rewire your tools. Bonus you can use one switch on many tools.
I'm a woman who barely owns a screwdriver. Why is watching and hearing a man walk around his workshop so soothing? Maybe it is memories of dad in his 'personal space', but this is really relaxing.
Adam, as you like mobility in your shop, I'd put a conector between the bandsaw and every pedal you install. This way you can move it around and even have multiple pedals around the shop that you just connect to the tool you need wherever you want. Thanks for the video!
@@dirtdart81 It does, but only if he doesn't have enough of them. Making them modular could be a little extra flexibility and still end up being stable for the high-use machines.
Home sewing machines (remember those?) have had foot switches for years and it wouldn't hurt to repurpose the switch from a decommissioned machine. They don't have covers, but they can be improvised. They are also like variacs, with higher speed at higher presses, so that could be useful for drill presses.
Ah, the bandsaw!. Yes! I've got foot switches on things like my Dremmel and other things where you need both hands to work, but I never thought about the bandsaw. First thing tomorrow... Thank you.
Hey Adam; noted the band saw is on a roller trolley and light enough to be portable, but the foot switch is bolted to the floor. If you like, you could have the foot switch in the power line, and add two inline connectors of the same type such that if you want to move the saw and use it else where, the foot switch can be unplugged and the power can go straight to the saw. But then you're going to need to connect up the rocker switch again and remember to have that on while using the foot switch. Just a thought
I like the foot pedals. I am looking forward to my future shop setup and installing some. I think the shop would be a little safer if the tools and metal switch housings were grounded. Especially either the lack of ingress protection for metal swarf. I also appreciate the 8 drawers being open below the band saw, just enough to collect a good percentage of chips from the saw.
The wiring on this is definitely a safety risk. Any metal part that could get into contact with mains voltage should be grounded. The Ground wire should be longer than the mains wire to ensure it is the last wire to loose contact to what it is grounding. Not having a proper strain relieve can also be a fire hazard as dust and metal chips make their way into the housing of the switch. I strongly urge you to revisit this especially because this is something people might do at home.
Maaaaan….I could (and do) watch you do anything! Such a lovely, genuinely lovely human! Also I thought I was right that in the u.s you couldn’t do major electrical work unless you were qualified…watching this, I’m obviously wrong….so I’ll hang my hat on……Australia this time
Great build and very useful. Not to mention potentially safer. But you took a tool that was largely portable and made it so that it's now stuck in place. I can imagine re-engineering this so that it's modular. You have a semi-portable tool like the bandsaw that has two modes. Can be used normally with the existing switch, but has a bypass mode what uses the foot-switch. Then rather than hardwire the foot-switch, make it a modular plug. Now you have a foot-switch station that you can swap out the tool on the top of it. All you have to do going forward is to pop a plug-in module to a new tool, and you can plug it into the foot-switch. You could even take it a step further, and remove the flip-switch, and just make modular flip-switches that could plug into where foot-switch goes so that you wouldn't need the by-pass. Or as someone suggests below, put the power in-line with the foot-switch, and then just use a power-cord wth an on/off if you want to use the tool w/o the foot-switch. But I guess that's another one-day build. Or too. Thanks for the brain food!
For the large cable stripping, at work we use a Joraki cable knife that works wonders. They are pricey for a simple function tool but they are a godsend if you have to strip thicker cable often.
I have ben using foot switches for probably 15-20 years but just for radio use & I use a foot switch to activate a home made tone box/signal generator i built several years ago & they work really well when your hands are needed for other things !
Hey Adam, Strain relief is needed but it’s easy to do the old school way. Strip the outer jacket an extra 3 inches. Tie the 3 conductors into a knot. The knot will provide relief. UL requires a test with a 20lb weight which gives you context in comparison to an actual strain relief fitting. I’ve got hundreds of light fixtures out in the wild this way but with a standard cable clamp as well.
Hey Adam. I'm not sure about US standards, but in EU, that metal box should be grounded. Also, installing cable through threaded hole without cable gland is risky. That cable gland would cost you maybe a single dollar, but it would act as strain relief , dust plug (metal dust under saw) and it will protect outer isolation against cutting on that thread. Same for the other end on saw. You have a nice strain relief for supply cable but not for switch?
I'd love to see you wire up a Ghostbuster's style foot switch for some sort of vacuum. I have to imagine you have an extra foot switch laying around. :) This is awesome!
Excellent! A shop I worked in back east had several drill presses. A few of them had levers attached to foot pedals so instead of pulling the press down by hand you could use your foot. Then you could use both hands to hold and reposition the piece.
Awsome one day build. I have my paint booth fan, powdercoat gun and a mounted heat gun all on foot pedals. I prefer the ones with 110v plugs so I can swap it with any tool when ever I want no hardworking needed.
I made a footswitch out of a broken pc power regulator and what I believe was a cheap sustain pedal from a keyboard of unknown origin. The pedal itself isn’t beefy enough to handle mains current, so it switches a 9v line that powers a relay, which in turn connects the mains to the outlet rails on the regulator case. The case was really the only thing that survived from the regulator, but the fact it has the outlets made it very well suited to its new life. It worked really well. I use it with my dremel tool that i have mounted on a press stand. If you squint very hard and don’t look directly at it, it almost looks like a milling machine 😅
Having two kids in my house, I was always worried that the moment I turned my back they might grab one of the power tools I was using, activate it and hurt themselves. I bought a foot switch online, and spliced it into the middle of a short extension cord. Now, whatever tool I am using is plugged into that extension cord, meaning I have whatever safety features are built into the tool, but I also have to depress the foot switch at the same time for it to energise. It is a brilliant little addition to my toolkit.
Hi Adam, just watched your day of the dead cane and I work with my hands and get cuts all the time, best thing I found is CA glue, it seals the cut and stops the bleeding straight away.
Footswitch on the drill press especially is such a useful upgrade both in terms of usability but also safety. If you have a limited budget wire your footswitch with a socket rather than directly to the machine. Mine is like an extension cord with the switch. It spends 99% of it's life attached to the drill press but sometimes I move it to other tools and that's really handy.
If you like the foot switch on the drill press you’d love my pressure switch on my vintage Delta press. Turns on the press when you start cranking the hand wheel. Though having a foot switch is probably better for being able to align things without the press on. Inherited the press from a machinist uncle.
i love the foot switches i have. i have 3. two on dremel or dremel type machines and one that i have that i move back and forth from item to item depending on the shop i work in. even these SMALL switches are amazing. I can only imagine what it would be like for the larger machines once i get around to getting them. Love them! Great work! fun video. Keep it up!
I've been wanting a foot switch for my work bench light but I haven't found any good ones yet.... Now I might be looking into a switch like this. Thanks Adam.... Now I'm gonna have another weird obsession w/ something in my shop. LoL
one thing i dont think even adam has thought about, he said he probably doesnt need a switch with the fancy cover however i think he'll enjoy it tremendously once that cover starts to scuff and show through. it'll have so much more character at that point, and we know adam loves a tool with character.
The best thing I've found for stripping the outer layer of insulation is a tubing cutter. The type with the disc that you spin and tighten. Works great every time. You have no idea how many yards of 3 strand electrical wire I've tossed over the years because of nicking the inner jackets. I used to dread having to strip that wire because I knew it was gonna take 3 tries before I didn't have any nicks.
They make a great cable stripper for that kind of multi-core cord. It has adjustable depth and will rotate 90 degrees to slit the cover for easy removal.
I love shirt. Nice fabric and buttons. Also love the foot switch and would have like to have gotten one for a relative whose birthday is coming up fast.... couldn't find it. Oh well.
One foot pedal feature I don't have a name for but like: Work circle shear (cuts sheet metal discs, mostly spinning blanks) foot pedal runs the motor when you step on the pedal... but stops if you put more pressure on it, and has to be reset with a button on the side to start again. For machines with a risk of entanglement especially, I think this is a great feature. If I'm caught by a machine, being pulled into something, I suspect I'll be pushing pretty hard with both my feet. 😬
"I probably won't need strain relief" *drags foot switch around shop by wire* 😂😂😂 don't ever change, Adam.
Love the idea, but...could have just added a stuffing gland at the ingress point, plus earth the box
Was gonna say the exact same thing ! Laughed a lot while seing that !
Also... those zip ties are nowhere near tied tight enough
He said "This is not a harsh environment". I would say, by the way he weathers his props, its among the harshest of environments XD
@@andrewgordonjardine2632 likely not needed as many mains power tools are earthed to their own chassis, thats why even in the UK where the fully earthed electrics are the basic standard now, you will still find mains drills and so on often only have live and neutral in the plug if you crack it open.
Shows safety feature by climbing on rolling chair and work bench. Love it!
Props to the editing team. Love the enhanced *Bandsaw Noise* wave form presentation.
I appreciated how the time code in Premiere matched the time code in the TH-cam video.
17:13 Not sure if it want's me to applaud, or it things the bandsaw is applauding, or maybe both?
I'm always grateful when the editor takes the time to compress the loud noises. It seems like such a small thing until you watch a video where that hasn't been done and you have to scramble for the volume controls so you don't wake the entire house.
@@SpaceSoups TH-cam's subtitle generator tends to think machines are either [applause] or [music]. Occasionally, you might get various thoughtful and/or confused noises -- "hmm" and "uh", for example. Interestingly, I've never seen it think a tool is [screaming].
Immediately pulling the "not necessary" strain relief to the test! LOVE IT!
Metal foot switch, doesn’t terminate the safety ground. Insurance company gonna love this.
Nice video and love that you showed how easy this is to do! But... The third wire should be used for ground and connected to the metal housing at the switch end, and connected to the ground and casing at the machine end. This will provide operator protection against a live short anywhere in the system. This is especially important where you are physically connecting two parts of your body to a device (insulated boots or otherwise) with live current and potentially providing electricity with a route passing through your heart.
Some kind of rubber grommet should also be used to provide at least some protection against spilled liquids and swarf from entering the switch body and causing shorts.
When he said, I’m sure you’ve been yelling at the screen the whole time, I thought well at least he heard me, but I was in my head yelling about grounding long before he figured out the relay lol.
I’m not an electrician, so don’t take my advice, but if this was a project I was doing for me, my two cents on his wiring are this:
• Take a 15’ 3 prong extension cord of the appropriate gauge wiring. Measure about 3’ from the female end of the wire and cut it off.
• Install appropriate strain relief clamp to open end of electrical box on foot switch, pass both cut ends of cable into box and strip all wires.
• Male plug on an extension cord brings in power to the switch.
•Female end of an extension cord leaves the switch. You plug in any devices using the foot switch to this.
• Inside the foot switch box:
° Combine the two neutrals with a wire nut and electric tape it up.
° Connect the power in (black cable) from the male extension cord to the input of the foot switch, the one closest to the foot pedal.
° Connect the black cable from the female extension cord to the middle lug (the normally open lug)
° Ground the metal box junction box and combine all grounds with a wire nut and tape together like you did the neutral wires. This should bring three ground wires together.
• Gently remove excess slack from electrical box as appropriate, and firmly secure tension relief, being carefully not to over tighten and crush cables.
Doing it the way I described allows you to be able to easily plug/unplug devices so you can use it around the shop as desired. It should give some degree of safety in case a cable comes lose and shorts to the metal box and energizes the metal foot switch. It should also allow you to retain the use of the existing on/off switch or your device so you can turn it off there when not using and not accidentally step on the switch to energize the machine.
I was somewhat disappointed that a person I see being generally safe and thinking through their problem solving was otherwise pretty unsafe in this video with their wiring approach. A lot of people watch these and regardless and copy your instructions.
@@adamdowney the lack of grounding is his choice given it’s a private shop but he is also doing a video on electrical wiring so I feel he shouldn’t ignore it either for the sake of giving good information. I am also not a fan how he strips back the cable sheathing as it’s much better to cut down the sheathing and pull it apart than across it and risk cutting into the wires but at least he addresses the need to be careful when doing that.
It looks like he wired it in place of the old switch. Do we know if the old switch was wired in-line with AC power, or was it just a leg off the bandsaw's built in switch mechanism? I'm asking because I assume the built in switch is a relay and doesn't need grounding protection.
Agree… ground fault protection won’t work if there isn’t a ground attached.
Seriously, who wants to call the San Fran electrical inspector to check out Adam's death shop?
I love this. After working in a couple of factories I've learned workers seem to like foot switches and managers hate them due to safety reasons
i heard of a guy on a drill press panic when he drilled through his thumb and didnt get off the switch
Seems like it would be quicker to step off the switch in an emergency vs having to look for the switch and flip it while in a panic.
@@isthatjake
Yup.
@Juan Martinez I'm a fan of the emergency off buttons at forehead level lol
@@ethan91002
Lol. I guess that would work also. Headbutt it.
I use footswitches all the time, for all sorts of different applications.
When I was a 911 dispatcher, we had foot switches to key up the radio and muting the phone, so that both hands were open for typing.
In my present life as a broadcast engineer, I have wired them for resetting countdown timers for TV break control, for triggering video switcher transitions, and intercom. Usually the intercom is hot all the time, so in that use case, it acts a a mute or 'cough drop' so you don't cough of send too many expletives down the line!
One of my favorite "shop hacks" for stripping wire I learned from FIL, a sewing seam ripper. It works on a lot of gauges and is an easy, safe way to strip the outer sheath.
That's a great idea; I have plenty of seam rippers about, so I'll be reaching for one of them next time I'm stripping some cable!
I will need to try that. Awesome idea
Hahaha!, Love it: I was literally yelling at the screen to connect the common to the normal closed, then he spoke to me. Love this foot switch, I want one… I guess I need space for a workshop first 😅
I would have added a cord to plug into the wall and the a cord to plug in the tool that way the foot switch is more universal and can be use with almost any tool if needed. This would also not require an modification to the existing tool. I love this build and this is a great idea.
Great idea!
I utterly love the way you talk to yourself as such to make sure everything is correct. I do the same. I also love the moving around fast to find everything. Please know I llove seeing this in a person. So real and gods.. so very true of many if not all of us out there. Keep being you .
Silly word from the Shetland Isles in Scotland. 200 miles north of Aberdeen. Great in the summer on the nice days but freezzing in, like today. 7 Celsius but wind chill of 1 or -1 lol :P
I love that Adam is the perfect mix of mad scientist and Actual scientist. His builds are epic!
I love the little editing flourishes that pop up here and there in these videos. They really add a lot of charm!
Sometimes they can be a bit jarring for me, but I do like the cuts that allow Adam to warp across spacetime instantaneously. For some reason those are immensely satisfying, especially when cleaning or gathering. It's a 4th-dimensional montage sequence!
I do bicycle fabrication and the shop I work in has foot switches on all the drill presses, grinders and belt Sanders. It's definitely my favorite little feature because you can start and stop all the tools while holding your Steel or Ti tubing with both hands.
My Dremel is hooked up to a switch pedal that's older than I am, and I'm not a young'un! Dad got it for me at a yard sale for two dollars. LOVE that thing.
liking this idea
@@littlehills Foot pedals are great for machines with variable speed motors. You can just buy them.
@@GoingApeCostume ....You can just buy them...... u cant just buy something you havent thought about or been exposed to. thanks for your input. like if you dint know the name to a "Chicago bolt" to make a paracord fib.
I’m glad to see Adam finally use my crimping pliers I sent him! I’m two for two. Helped Adam. Helped Mythbusters.
When Adam dropped the foot switch and said “that’s enough out of you“. It reminded me of how I like to verbally quiet the ovens at work when they’re blaring ”I’m done”! Like I walk up going “all right, all right geez Calm down”.
Watching you work in your shop is like looking into a mirror when I'm working on my musical gear. All the ADHD pinballing, all the train-of-thought jumps. Thank you for making me feel like I'm not super crazy.
Adam/Tested, the wiring as you have shown it in that switch box is unsafe, as no earth connection is made to the metal enclosure. A fault in the switch or wire, or debris entering the box could cause the housing to become live risking electrocution to the operator. I appreciate that this is more regulated in Europe than America due to the higher voltage, and that this failure is unlikely, but there is still risk of harm.
Apart from that I like that this is more safe than typical rocker switches as it acts like a deadman switch.
From a European standpoint, electricity in the US is like looking into the stone age...
@@januszkszczotek8587 I’ll get back to you on that, first gotta go fly a kite in a thunderstorm. ⚡️
Even in the U.S., that metal box should be grounded. And once he screwed it to the floor, I bet it became a building code violation.
@@jimk5307 😂
Love that you still have the passion and child like enjoyment you do!
Love the continuous evolution of the mini bandsaw. Who knows where it will go next.
More power, bigger wheels, a visit to a foundry to have a larger table made
The sound that cover makes is so recognizable, we have similar looking foot switch for our lathe chuck at work.
A couple others have said it, but I would definitely feel more comfortable if that pedal was grounded. Especially without a regular strain relief in place to isolate the cord movement from the connections, there’s a lot of potential for the wires or crimps to work themselves loose or wear through the insulation over time. [Not an electrician, but a commercial coffee equipment tech]
Also, did I spy a box of Knipex goodies back there?
the spade lugs can also work loose.
Love the raw production of this video, shear chaos
I knew it! They exist. Because why not. I just finished mine yesterday from a doorbell case connected in a power outlet for my rotary tool. Made it easier to turn on and off.
Just can't believe how doesn't Adam hurt himself or brake the tools as there is always a great amount of fiddle going on 😂 Master level of controlling the chaos.
He hurts himself all the time haha
It’s normal every day stuff for most of us. Also we do get hurt lol
Hilarious! I just finished watching part two of the build of the enclosure for that band saw and I watched all that milling of the speed control SCREAMING FOOT SWITCH for the whole thing! In fact I commented on the other video about that and specifically found this after searching "Tested foot switch"!
I have to watch a lot of videos to be ahead of you on your solutions - but this time I wish I had been watching the housing build live to yell FOOT SWITCH!
Foot switch series, disc and belt sander, grinder, Snapple fountain, vacuum...
I love to watch US shop wiring. Here in Germany we would use a Motor Safety Switch with a separate connection for an external switch or at least a relais so the footswitch wouldn't see the full power of the motor all the time.
Regards,
Etna.
Man you'd go absolutely insane if you looked at some of the residential wiring here in the states, specifically in rural areas. A lot of houses in my area that were built in the 50s and 60s show huge amounts of electrical incompetence. For example, in my bedroom when I was 15, I could take the chain for the light in the ceiling fan, touch it to the slightly exposed metal base of the light bulb, and the light would turn on. One whole half the house was wired to a single 15 amp circuit breaker as well. That's not to mention our actual standards. You couldn't try to design a plug that's more unsafe than what we use. Then we use extension cords with thin little wires in them. They get warm if you plug anything too big into them. Our 220 setups are usually a bit safer with locking plugs (no insulation on the base of the prongs though) and the plugs themselves aren't usually in easily accessible places.
Normally that is the case but this portable bandsaw is only 120V
@@whatbroicanhave50character35 I think that is why I binge r/electricians.
Regards,
Etna.
Same here over in Australia, American electrical seems bonkers and 30 years behind the rest of the world.
Thank you for adding strain relief.
I’m excited when Adam’s excited. 👏👏👏
Best bandsaw noises ever!
Foot switches are safer too, if something goes sideways your first instinct is usually to step back.
I made a company I worked for install one on a 3 roll mill (3 counter rotating steel cylinders with very little clearance between them, a scary machine to operate!). A guy got fired because he was putting a can of paint on it to keep it running while he did other stuff lol.
Back when I was making a LOT of cat-5 cables at work, we had an amazing little tool that looked kind of like a cigar cutter. You'd open the thing, put the cable in the hole, close it, then spin it around the cable and it would put a lovely score all around the sheath that could then easily be snapped off. Because the blade was angled, you could chose from two different depths of score depending on which way you rotated (or you could just spin around more than once). Found it! The "Cyclops 2 UTP Cable Jacket Stripper".
Definitely a unitasking device but great to have if that's what you're doing.
I love watching Adam's videos. It's great to be a cheerful and cheerful person)😊
So glad you mounted the switch to the floor. You really only make a semi-deadman-switch if it's stuck to your boot as you're diving for cover from flying metal. Excellent safety feature and probably pretty convenient for you.
So much creative and chaotic energy from this video! Nothing like seeing a master builder do his thing in an environment that fits him like a glove
Best part of the video? Using a zip tie to prevent the cable from backing out of the housing. Definitely remembering that little tidbit.
Not sure if that switch is switching directly on mains, but if it is, with a metal enclosure it probably would've been sensible to use the ground wire too 🤔
I was thinking the same thing, but I realized he's basically replacing a rocker switch.
@@spiranomad Yes but still a class 1 mains appliance, so it really needs to be grounded, so that if say tramp metal gets in through that missing gland, and shorts out the wires, the GFCI would operate before Adam becomes a glow in the dark ornament.
@@SeanBZA I almost sure that there was a bolt inside that pedal for earth wire.
@@MSP_TechLab There is, I have even seen the grounding bolt position on pneumatic foot switches, because there are areas which they are used in that are required to be intrinsically safe, and thus, even though there is no electric connection, there is still a risk of a spark arising, so all metal in those areas needs to be ground bonded. Even the all plastic bodied ones have the moulding in them to accept a ground wire, just to hold it in position to carry through the chain.
Right, the pedal had a ground lug and it wasn’t used. Not a great practice, especially after the lecture on nicking insulation… Funny that it was actually equal or extra effort to not use it after he added the spade connector and later cut it off.
I love this little gem of a video. The bandsaw noises bit got me 😄
I use that striping trick myself, it's especially effective when the outer insulation is cold because the act of bending the cable after the initial knife scoring will actually do the stripping for you, and it happens much faster because it's a bit more brittle. It was extremely useful when stripping low voltage data cable for outside, in ground pool automation systems.
Sounds like what I do. I bend the cable and start cutting slowly. That pressure causes it to finish pulling the insulation apart when you cut away enough of it without having to actually cut all the way through. Then you just pull it from the end and it slides off with a little effort.
Try cutting along the cable lightly then pull the inner wires apart from the cable starting at the end. It’s fast and for all but the heaviest cable works very well.
@@richardh6964 there's a good reason why electricians use wire stippers. If it ain't broke, don't fix it. Reinventing the wheel here.
@@peterkallend5012 I learned that trick from a electrician.
@@richardh6964 good for you. I don't know any electrician that use that technique. Low voltage wires are likely to break if you do that kind of thing, as the copper conductor has a lower tensile strength that the insulation that surrounds the internal wires. I'm of the opinion that if there's the possibility of breaking the continuity of the wires, don't do it. Cheers.
Man, I just love the way Adam grabs and drops things lol, so fast, so hard, cracks me up everytime. I've been wanting to install a foot switch to my mill press for so long! I guess it's time!
As an electrician, HOOK THE DAMN GROUND WIRE UP
If you just get a heavy duty extension cord and put the foot switch in it then you don't have to rewire your tools. Bonus you can use one switch on many tools.
I'm a woman who barely owns a screwdriver. Why is watching and hearing a man walk around his workshop so soothing? Maybe it is memories of dad in his 'personal space', but this is really relaxing.
I'm surprised you haven't thought of that before! I've had them on my drill press and band saw for ages! WooHoo, I was ahead of Adam Savage !!!!!
Adam you really need a bushing where the wire enters the switch. Over time that sheathing can wear away and cause a short in one of the wires.
Adam, as you like mobility in your shop, I'd put a conector between the bandsaw and every pedal you install. This way you can move it around and even have multiple pedals around the shop that you just connect to the tool you need wherever you want. Thanks for the video!
That really breaks the "walk to the tool and use it" need
@@dirtdart81 It does, but only if he doesn't have enough of them. Making them modular could be a little extra flexibility and still end up being stable for the high-use machines.
@@JosephDavies just add them to the high traffic machines then? I'd hate to interrupt my flow to go find a footswitch
Home sewing machines (remember those?) have had foot switches for years and it wouldn't hurt to repurpose the switch from a decommissioned machine. They don't have covers, but they can be improvised. They are also like variacs, with higher speed at higher presses, so that could be useful for drill presses.
I have had a foot pedal on my portaband with a swag offroad table kit for years. The combination is a real game changer
Ah, the bandsaw!. Yes!
I've got foot switches on things like my Dremmel and other things where you need both hands to work, but I never thought about the bandsaw.
First thing tomorrow...
Thank you.
A++ for the bandsaw noises waveform.
Love watching him get up on a rolling stool to stand on a desk in order to show off the how cool the Safety feature is
These videos put me to sleep so fast. So comforting just listening to a passionate person doing things
Hey Adam; noted the band saw is on a roller trolley and light enough to be portable, but the foot switch is bolted to the floor. If you like, you could have the foot switch in the power line, and add two inline connectors of the same type such that if you want to move the saw and use it else where, the foot switch can be unplugged and the power can go straight to the saw. But then you're going to need to connect up the rocker switch again and remember to have that on while using the foot switch. Just a thought
I like the foot pedals. I am looking forward to my future shop setup and installing some.
I think the shop would be a little safer if the tools and metal switch housings were grounded. Especially either the lack of ingress protection for metal swarf.
I also appreciate the 8 drawers being open below the band saw, just enough to collect a good percentage of chips from the saw.
The wiring on this is definitely a safety risk. Any metal part that could get into contact with mains voltage should be grounded. The Ground wire should be longer than the mains wire to ensure it is the last wire to loose contact to what it is grounding. Not having a proper strain relieve can also be a fire hazard as dust and metal chips make their way into the housing of the switch. I strongly urge you to revisit this especially because this is something people might do at home.
Thumbs up for bandsaw noises. :)
I like when editors have a little fun. Thanks Norman. :)
Awesome video Mr Adam sir
Maaaaan….I could (and do) watch you do anything! Such a lovely, genuinely lovely human!
Also I thought I was right that in the u.s you couldn’t do major electrical work unless you were qualified…watching this, I’m obviously wrong….so I’ll hang my hat on……Australia this time
Attaching the green wire to the metal frame would be recommended.
Great build and very useful. Not to mention potentially safer.
But you took a tool that was largely portable and made it so that it's now stuck in place. I can imagine re-engineering this so that it's modular. You have a semi-portable tool like the bandsaw that has two modes. Can be used normally with the existing switch, but has a bypass mode what uses the foot-switch. Then rather than hardwire the foot-switch, make it a modular plug.
Now you have a foot-switch station that you can swap out the tool on the top of it. All you have to do going forward is to pop a plug-in module to a new tool, and you can plug it into the foot-switch.
You could even take it a step further, and remove the flip-switch, and just make modular flip-switches that could plug into where foot-switch goes so that you wouldn't need the by-pass. Or as someone suggests below, put the power in-line with the foot-switch, and then just use a power-cord wth an on/off if you want to use the tool w/o the foot-switch.
But I guess that's another one-day build. Or too.
Thanks for the brain food!
He has a second small bandsaw that is fully portable (it’s showing in another video).
WAGO LEVER NUTS!! They are simply an amazing invention and would be perfect for connecting the wires.
For the large cable stripping, at work we use a Joraki cable knife that works wonders. They are pricey for a simple function tool but they are a godsend if you have to strip thicker cable often.
They have a 20,- version that works really good. I had it aswell. Saves you sooo much time getting a cable sheath of. Cleaner cut also!
Jokari number 35.
i absolutely love that green jacket! looks so good. plus matched well with the green metal of the base of the pedal. some of my favorite shades
Wow. I mean great video, but oh my god the chaos in this one. Love you Adam
I have ben using foot switches for probably 15-20 years but just for radio use & I use a foot switch to activate a home made tone box/signal generator i built several years ago & they work really well when your hands are needed for other things !
Hey Adam, Strain relief is needed but it’s easy to do the old school way. Strip the outer jacket an extra 3 inches. Tie the 3 conductors into a knot. The knot will provide relief. UL requires a test with a 20lb weight which gives you context in comparison to an actual strain relief fitting. I’ve got hundreds of light fixtures out in the wild this way but with a standard cable clamp as well.
Oh hey! I did the same thing last year! Took a foot-switch and attached a power cord to it so I could foot-control all the things!
I might have to pick up a few of these for my shop!
Im gonna start putting random old/new/weird shop items on eBay in the hopes that one day Adam buys one and features it on Tested :D
Hey Adam. I'm not sure about US standards, but in EU, that metal box should be grounded. Also, installing cable through threaded hole without cable gland is risky. That cable gland would cost you maybe a single dollar, but it would act as strain relief , dust plug (metal dust under saw) and it will protect outer isolation against cutting on that thread. Same for the other end on saw. You have a nice strain relief for supply cable but not for switch?
I love that workshop...
loved the band saw noises😄
I'd love to see you wire up a Ghostbuster's style foot switch for some sort of vacuum. I have to imagine you have an extra foot switch laying around. :) This is awesome!
Excellent! A shop I worked in back east had several drill presses. A few of them had levers attached to foot pedals so instead of pulling the press down by hand you could use your foot. Then you could use both hands to hold and reposition the piece.
I had a foot switch for my brights in my truck back in the day.
Awsome one day build. I have my paint booth fan, powdercoat gun and a mounted heat gun all on foot pedals. I prefer the ones with 110v plugs so I can swap it with any tool when ever I want no hardworking needed.
I made a footswitch out of a broken pc power regulator and what I believe was a cheap sustain pedal from a keyboard of unknown origin. The pedal itself isn’t beefy enough to handle mains current, so it switches a 9v line that powers a relay, which in turn connects the mains to the outlet rails on the regulator case.
The case was really the only thing that survived from the regulator, but the fact it has the outlets made it very well suited to its new life. It worked really well. I use it with my dremel tool that i have mounted on a press stand. If you squint very hard and don’t look directly at it, it almost looks like a milling machine 😅
Having two kids in my house, I was always worried that the moment I turned my back they might grab one of the power tools I was using, activate it and hurt themselves.
I bought a foot switch online, and spliced it into the middle of a short extension cord. Now, whatever tool I am using is plugged into that extension cord, meaning I have whatever safety features are built into the tool, but I also have to depress the foot switch at the same time for it to energise.
It is a brilliant little addition to my toolkit.
IDK if it's more comforting to see you fumble/rush around your shop like me or not. But it's nice to know I'm not the only one. 😃
Adam "dont need strain relief" Adds strain relief, then swings the peddel around the shop by the wire xD love it.
Hi Adam, just watched your day of the dead cane and I work with my hands and get cuts all the time, best thing I found is CA glue, it seals the cut and stops the bleeding straight away.
Such a relatively small upgrade but I can absolutely appreciate how it hits the spot of making one feel more empowered in the workshop!
I will have one in the future! Maybe 2 or 3!!! Also you need a big shop for more stuff😜
Footswitch on the drill press especially is such a useful upgrade both in terms of usability but also safety.
If you have a limited budget wire your footswitch with a socket rather than directly to the machine. Mine is like an extension cord with the switch. It spends 99% of it's life attached to the drill press but sometimes I move it to other tools and that's really handy.
Adam, i've got 2 words for ya. "Jokari knife" you will like it and i never saw you using one of these.
There is something really funny about so nonchalantly screwing a foot pedal into the floor at the base of a rolling cart.
I love the foot pedals! Logical AND easy peasy ✌
If you like the foot switch on the drill press you’d love my pressure switch on my vintage Delta press. Turns on the press when you start cranking the hand wheel. Though having a foot switch is probably better for being able to align things without the press on. Inherited the press from a machinist uncle.
i love the foot switches i have. i have 3. two on dremel or dremel type machines and one that i have that i move back and forth from item to item depending on the shop i work in. even these SMALL switches are amazing. I can only imagine what it would be like for the larger machines once i get around to getting them. Love them! Great work! fun video. Keep it up!
That was awesome dude 😎
I have a foot switch on my bandsaw! I love it!!!! but omg those things you have are massive! :D
I've been wanting a foot switch for my work bench light but I haven't found any good ones yet.... Now I might be looking into a switch like this. Thanks Adam.... Now I'm gonna have another weird obsession w/ something in my shop. LoL
Love the Ship John!
one thing i dont think even adam has thought about, he said he probably doesnt need a switch with the fancy cover however i think he'll enjoy it tremendously once that cover starts to scuff and show through. it'll have so much more character at that point, and we know adam loves a tool with character.
The best thing I've found for stripping the outer layer of insulation is a tubing cutter. The type with the disc that you spin and tighten. Works great every time. You have no idea how many yards of 3 strand electrical wire I've tossed over the years because of nicking the inner jackets. I used to dread having to strip that wire because I knew it was gonna take 3 tries before I didn't have any nicks.
They make a great cable stripper for that kind of multi-core cord. It has adjustable depth and will rotate 90 degrees to slit the cover for easy removal.
I love shirt. Nice fabric and buttons.
Also love the foot switch and would have like to have gotten one for a relative whose birthday is coming up fast.... couldn't find it. Oh well.
One foot pedal feature I don't have a name for but like: Work circle shear (cuts sheet metal discs, mostly spinning blanks) foot pedal runs the motor when you step on the pedal... but stops if you put more pressure on it, and has to be reset with a button on the side to start again. For machines with a risk of entanglement especially, I think this is a great feature. If I'm caught by a machine, being pulled into something, I suspect I'll be pushing pretty hard with both my feet. 😬
Gives a whole new meaning to putting your feet to work.