In article , Philip Lewis wrote:
(Doug Miller) writes:
When someone asks "how do you do this?" and you tell him "this is how I
would do it" that *is* giving advice.
[snip irrelevant word games]

My "advice" was that i *think* it can be done easily, and they should
call someone who is familiar with it.

No, that's *not* what you wrote. This is:

"If *I* needed a temporary 120V feed, I'd get a 240V (dryer) cord, run
it into a outlet box, cap one of the hot feeds, and wire up the second
hot/neutral to an outlet. I'd really want to put some sort of ground
on the device if possible, or use a gfci outlet if ground wasn't
available. Then I would plug in only when using the feed. This would
probably break all sorts of rules in the NEC though... so I wouldn't
recommend it for someone else."

Like I said... if someone asks how to do something, and you say "this is how
I'd do it" that *is* giving advice.

That's correct as far as it goes, but it's not the whole story.
you don't seem aware that while 240V circuits nearly always have
*grounds*, they frequently do *not* have neutrals --

I did not ever say to connect a hot and ground to supply power.

Refer to your advice above: "cap one of the hot feeds, and wire up the second
hot/neutral to an outlet." Problem is, there is NO NEUTRAL in a typical 240V
circuit. The OP obviously doesn't understand 240V circuits any better than you
do, and by following your advice he may well use the bare wire, thinking it's
the "neutral" that you're talking about.

I specifically said I would connect a neutral and hot together, and that
i would want to have a ground at the location as well. That choice of
wording specifically would seem to indicate that there was a
difference between the two, and that just perhaps, I knew the
difference between the two. Which is why I made it very clear that I
don't recommend they do what I said i would do.

You also wrote:
"A 240 line is usually the neutral and the two hot phases of the 120V
service in the residential home. (sometimes they have ground as well)"

and this seems to indicate that you don't understand the difference between
ground and neutral, at least with respect to 240V circuits.

In my original post, i see that i did screw up and say that there is
usually a neutral and sometimes a ground...

That's exactly what I've been telling you. Glad you finally noticed.

[...]

Out of curiosity, If there is an unmarked white insulated wire in an
outlet, other than tracing it back to the circuit panel, is there a
way differentiate between neutral and ground? (Let's assume that it
wasn't hooked to a box ground lug and that we have no idea if it's
wired to code.)

Hook an ammeter to it, and apply a load to the circuit. If the ammeter shows
current flowing, it's either hot or neutral. If the ammeter shows no current,
either it's ground, or it's not connected to that circuit.

In any case, we're mostly talking semantics and interpretation
now... which isn't helping this guy get his treadmill plugged in.

No, we're *not* talking semantics and interpretation. We're talking the
difference between safe and unsafe practice.


--
Regards,
Doug Miller (alphageek at milmac dot com)

Nobody ever left footprints in the sands of time by sitting on his butt.
And who wants to leave buttprints in the sands of time?