Hard To Spot

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jmellc

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Location
Durham, NC
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Facility Maintenance Tech. Licensed Electrician
Did a project in a building I rarely go to. Looked all around for the panel & nearly every one was 480. Then my helper spotted this. I’ve seen very few of this type & many years back so it wasn’t what I was looking for. 3 cheers for good helpers. 🚩🚩🚩
 

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jmellc said:
Did a project in a building I rarely go to. Looked all around for the panel & nearly every one was 480. Then my helper spotted this. I’ve seen very few of this type & many years back so it wasn’t what I was looking for. 3 cheers for good helpers. 🚩🚩🚩
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Maybe should been looking for a transformer instead of a panel? then may still need to follow secondary line to get to a panel in some cases.
 
jmellc said:
Did a project in a building I rarely go to. Looked all around for the panel & nearly every one was 480. Then my helper spotted this. I’ve seen very few of this type & many years back so it wasn’t what I was looking for. 3 cheers for good helpers.
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Is that an I beam column? Is (are) there conduit(s) coming in the top?

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jim dungar said:
That is a column width panelboard, they are offered by every major manufacturer. There is a wireway that goes from the breaker section up to a junction box where the neutrals are terminated.
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Yep, "column width" panelboard. When I worked in a Steel Mill we used them a lot, the facilities engineers loved them because they didn't have to dedicate wall space for 120V panels on the production floor. Later in life when I was building control panels, I would buy the interiors to use as a way to distribute power to control circuits (before the days of the little DIN rail mounted breakers)
 
Last one I saw was flattened by a forklift. Surprised it doesn’t happen more often..
 
Hv&Lv said:
Last one I saw was flattened by a forklift. Surprised it doesn’t happen more often..
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Oh, this one has a few dings. Being recessed into the column is the only reason it hasn’t been pulverized. 🤣
 
We still use Square D QO column-width panels in restaurant work. A lot of McDonald’s have them.


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I’ve known about them for many years, but never seen one in the wild. One of my guys had one that was burned up, and thought he couldn’t get another. But they still make them, and gave him a link to them.
 
My neighbor has a wood shop down the road. It is super cool as it has all really old equipment and these line shafts and flat belts running all over the ceiling run by a single motor with all these pulleys and levers to engage and disengage stuff.... OSHA would have a coronary if they went in there 🤣. Anyway, he has one of those column width panel boards in there, is the only one I have ever seen. I've been meaning to take a picture of it and post it here on the forum but no need now!
 
electrofelon said:
While we are on the topic of odd width panels:. I did a job a few years ago that had some narrow QO load centers they were 12 in wide. Only time I'd ever seen those. What was the thinking on those?
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I’m not sure. Has to be for a particular framing standard I would think? You can order NQ cabinets 14” wide.


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electrofelon said:
While we are on the topic of odd width panels:. I did a job a few years ago that had some narrow QO load centers they were 12 in wide. Only time I'd ever seen those. What was the thinking on those?
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That was a common width until the early 80's when UL and the NEC changed minimum dimensions.
 
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