150 A 3 phase distro

T

Tom Manchester

Senior
Jan 11, 2011
607
1
0
Delaware
www.electrosoundsystems.com
Whew! After a solid week of work my totally scratch built 150A distro is complete. I did all the metalwork and built the enclosure. The enclosure is made from 2 2x4' sheets of 3/16" aluminum plate, all assembled with rivets and stainless steel hardware. The hardest part was all of the cut outs for the breakers. I had to cut the slots with a jig saw and then use a router and template to shave the final 1/32" off and give it a nice clean edge. The cutouts came out perfect and the whole panel looks CNC quality, I'm pretty pleased.

It's all mounted completely free floating and shock mounted in a "pocket door" style rack that matches all of my "A-rig" amp racks, so the setup is very clean. LED rope light to help making connections easier.

Electrically it has 6 L21-30 and 2 L5-20 outlets for amp racks, 1 dedicated L21-30 for my FOH power run, and 3 20a Edison circuits for utility and backline power. There is a meter that shows voltage, current, and power factor on all 3 legs. Cam lock input with a 150A main breaker.
 

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Re: 150 A 3 phase distro

Some more construction pics. I did all the messy work at the shop, and then came home so I could defrost my hands and do the finer assembly work.
 

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Re: 150 A 3 phase distro

Tom,

This is an easy afternoon, and not very much money, for a panel shop with a laser or waterjet. Seriously, go bid out have a local shop cut this stuff before tearing up your hands and ears doing metalwork.
 
Re: 150 A 3 phase distro

Phil Graham said:
Tom,

This is an easy afternoon, and not very much money, for a panel shop with a laser or waterjet. Seriously, go bid out have a local shop cut this stuff before tearing up your hands and ears doing metalwork.
Click to expand...

And if he spent a week building it, what's a week's pay worth? I think he should have bought one and spent his time making money.
 
Re: 150 A 3 phase distro

Silas Pradetto said:
And if he spent a week building it, what's a week's pay worth? I think he should have bought one and spent his time making money.
Click to expand...

I built most of this in my "off" time, at home in the evenings. I live to build things, always have, always will. If I wasn't making this, it would be model airplanes or furniture. This is more than a utility piece for my company, it's a practice in my skill to turn raw materials into something tangible. The fact that it is functional and will net me profit is simply a bonus. There was plenty of money being made, lots of rentals and a handful of service calls during the week I built this.

I always have appropriate PPE on, usually Sennheiser earbuds with "shooting muffs" over them. You can barely hear the tools over my iPod with that many layers.


And seriously, didn't you roadcase an RV inverter Silas?
 
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Re: 150 A 3 phase distro

Tom Manchester said:
I built most of this in my "off" time, at home in the evenings. I live to build things, always have, always will. If I wasn't making this, it would be model airplanes or furniture. This is more than a utility piece for my company, it's a practice in my skill to turn raw materials into something tangible. The fact that it is functional and will net me profit is simply a bonus. There was plenty of money being made, lots of rentals and a handful of service calls during the week I built this.

I always have appropriate PPE on, usually Sennheiser earbuds with "shooting muffs" over them. You can barely hear the tools over my iPod with that many layers.
Click to expand...

Sounds like therapy to me
 
Re: 150 A 3 phase distro

Silas Pradetto said:
And if he spent a week building it, what's a week's pay worth? I think he should have bought one and spent his time making money.
Click to expand...
Silas,

This is from a guy who spent how many months building LabHorns ;^) ?

DIY is not just about saving money, there is a benefit to knowing what is "under the hood".

And the time it takes to bid out a local shop to do the metalwork (the metalwork was a small fraction of the total time spent on the project) could easily equal the time spent cutting the metalwork out, not to mention the expense the metalwork shop charges.

Art
 
Re: 150 A 3 phase distro

Art Welter said:
Silas,

This is from a guy who spent how many months building LabHorns ;^) ?

DIY is not just about saving money, there is a benefit to knowing what is "under the hood".

And the time it takes to bid out a local shop to do the metalwork (the metalwork was a small fraction of the total time spent on the project) could easily equal the time spent cutting the metalwork out, not to mention the expense the metalwork shop charges.

Art
Click to expand...

Some things are worth building; some are not. A power distro is an awful lot of liability to take on, and the final product, even after many hours invested, looks nowhere near as polished as a Motion Labs or other 'real' manufactured product. A 'real' power distro is not that expensive - maybe only $3000 or so - so it's on the line that I would consider 'not worth building'. Especially considering that any electrical malfunction that might cause an insurance claim isn't going to be covered because this distro is in use.

LAB subs, on the other hand, with 3 weeks of time and $5,000 I was able to get $20,000+ worth of subwoofer performance. That's worth it.

And no one that I know of makes road-cased power inverters, so there is no commercial option for that project. :)

Edit: I was actually going to post making fun of Tom's connector choices on this unit. (Purely in a friendly way, of course). A combination of regular receptacles flush mounted, flanged receptacles, and receptacles on raised covers made for a good chuckle from me. All the receptacles in use on this distro are available in flanged versions, so it could have been much cleaner and more professional looking.
 
Re: 150 A 3 phase distro

Tom Manchester said:
I built most of this in my "off" time, at home in the evenings. I live to build things, always have, always will.
Click to expand...

I'm the same way. Always making/fixing. I've come to appreciate for metalwork that you can save a lot of splinters, racket, etc. by having numerically cut pieces.

You do really nice work, always have. With your cabinetry skills, I'm not suggesting you start paying a millwork shop to build cabinets, only that it would be at least worth talking to a metal shop.

I always have appropriate PPE on, usually Sennheiser earbuds with "shooting muffs" over them. You can barely hear the tools over my iPod with that many layers.
Click to expand...

Excellent.

P.S. You might find this link from UL relevant, depending on how much of this you are going to do:
UL | Become a UL Listed Panel Shop
 
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