Rewiring older melting pots

[captn-tin]

Anyone ever rewire the old 2-wire (no ground) melting pots to 3-wire? I have 1 Lyman pot that needs new wire, and 1 Saeco whose wire is a little shaky. Thinking grounded wiring would be a good thing. Anyone know what this conversion involves? The Lyman pot has a 2 connection hook up that you plug the cord into,
at the pot which I'd like to do away with also. Hard wire? These projects OK for a retired meat cutter (butcher) to attempt, or have it done by an electrician. All help appreciated.Thanks, Bill

[HATCH]

2 wire to 3 wire conversion is easy.
You just place the ground wire on a part of the metal frame that supports the pot.

[Nobade]

And you can get furnace wire and high temperature connectors from McMaster carr. Worked great to fix my old saeco pot.

[Mal Paso]

Connect the ground wire to the inside of the metal wiring box with a #10 machine screw/nut.

[Rcmaveric]

White is power, black is ground, green is earth ground.

Earth ground goes any where on the case to ground out the metal frame of the pot. It's just an added layer of safety so if your pot shorts it trips your breaker. Instead of knock you out of your socks when you touch it. You dont really need the earth ground it's just a safety feature. Half my tools and lamps dont have it. They make EGFI adapter plugs now too.

You can get power cables from Acehardware. Look for a medium or heavy duty. They come in 3 or 2 wire. Sometimes the might have a power rating in which case get one that matches.

Sent from my SM-N970U using Tapatalk

[Mr_Sheesh]

A good strain relief on every power cord is a darn GOOD idea, also.

[BamaNapper]

White is power, black is ground, green is earth ground.

A minor mis-speak there. White is neutral, black is hot.

Sounds like you work more frequently with automotive or electronic equipment. For most electronics black is always ground, but 120V wiring has been white for neutral since day one. I do mostly electronics and I have to slow down and think about it every time I mess with house wiring.

[Rcmaveric]

Learn me something new today. Lol, yes I am a Aviation Electrician.

Sent from my SM-N970U using Tapatalk

[megasupermagnum]

It is very easy. Get a few feet of 3 conductor cable, 14 gauge is fine, and a male 3 prong plug. Even an old extension cord will work. As said, black is hot, and it goes on the gold screw in the plug, white is neutral, and goes on the silver screw in the plug, and ground is green, and goes on the green screw.

[Drm50]

OP is rewiring his pot not his receptacle. It’s best not to go by color of wire if you didn’t wire it or have it done to code. Put meter on receptacle and check for hot wire and neutral. The electricity don’t give a hoot about color codes. In two wire 120v house wiring in older houses quite often the colors are reversed. It made no difference at the time. That’s why the plugs on modern appliances have prongs that will only go in one way. The receptacles match.

[wv109323]

My experience with a Lyman pot was the prong connections where the cord plugged into, Along with the wire terminations and eventually the thermostat. I bite the bullet and went with a PID with the frame ground( third wire).
I wired the power cord directly to the heating element and included the frame ground. The PID has a female receptacle to plug the pot in to. This eliminated my problems

[captn-tin]

Thanks to all for the rewiring tips. Now to decide if I'm gonna take up casting again. Stopped in the late 80s. Might pass on fixing them myself and just sell everything as is. Print a copy of all your tips and givem to the buyer. Decisions, decisions ! Ha. Thanx again...Bill