In article ,
Brett A. Thomas wrote:
Mike Marlow wrote:
anything you'd want to put in. You can get really carried away with this
stuff and sometimes you have to step back and say - hey, this is just a
hobby shop - do I really need this or that or the other thing, or is a
simpler method a better approach. Personal preference will prevail.

Yeah, that's usually a danger for me. But I'm also a bit of a
safety freak. I'm sure the price tags will dictate a lot of my design,
anyway. At the very least, I'd really like to be able to actually *lock
out* the big tools so I don't have to worry about the kids at all.
That'll be very popular with SWMBO.

IF you're putting in a sub-panel, You can put in a 'manual disconnect'
_upstream_ of the panel. These are readily available at the BORG, as well
as any electrical supply house. For _not_ a whole lot of money.

Obviously, if you go this route, you run the circuits for the lighting
directly from the main panel. You do _not_ want the lock-out to disable
the lighting._

'panic buttons' are a whole nother story. These require a 'contactor' (the
name for a 'really heavy-duty relay', and some trivial control circuitry
that holds the contactor engaged, until a panic button is pushed.

Buying this kind of stuff new *is* generally price-prohibitive. However,
on the surplus market -- e.g. http://www.surplussales.com -- you can
find appropriate heavy-duty components for not a whole lot of money. I
haven't looked, but I wouldn't be surprised if they even have the 'big red
button' panic buttons.