I finally got a new service hookup done for the house, and there is a
nice new breaker panel in the corner of the shop with the lathe & mill.
Both run off 110V.

The way my old shop was wired, I had both sides of the 220V & a neutral
run to some quad outlet boxes. That way I could wire the boxes as 220V,
or split things up and have 2 duplex outlets, each on a separate breaker.
I never used the 220V option, but having dual 20 amp circuits was nice.
I'd like to do something similar now.

The trick is how to run the wires in a clean fashion. The basement is
somewhat finished, and there is wainscotting running around about 3 feet
up the wall. It is made of tongue & groove stained pine, nailed to 2x3
studs and contains some insulation. At the bottom, there is a metal
baseboard for hot water heating. I can run a conduit down from the
breaker panel through the top of the wainscotting, which is capped with a
1 1/2" thick stained & varnished moulding. From there, I need to go
about 8 feet horizontally. That's where things get tricky.

There's no way to cleanly go horizontally through the studs in the
wainscotting, and the tongue & groove paneling is nailed together well
enough that it would make a real mess of things if I tried to take a
piece out. The cap is screwed down, with the screw holes plugged,
stained, & varnished. My theory at the moment is to go down to behind
the baseboard, drill a hole in the metal back, and then run the wires out
and horizontally below the baseboard element. I can then drill another
hole to run the wire up to where I want the outlet. I'll make sure there
is a bushing of some sort to protect the wire coming through the sheet
metal.

I'm planning on running Romex, and the wire will be pretty well
protected below the baseboard. I'm not sure if code would require
running the wire in any sort of conduit for further protection. Does
anyone know the rules for something like this? I've certianly seen
plenty of cases where Romex runs exposed for short distances going from
conduit or a box into a wall or ceiling.

Also, does anyone know if there is a table for running Romex in conduit?
I'd like to be able to use a big enough conduit for two cables for future
expansion, and I doubt I can physically get two runs of 12x3+ground
through a 1/2" piece of EMT. Even if I could, I don't expect it's to
code. I could run individual wires (THHN), but then I'd need a junction
box someplace to switch to Romex for the rest of the run. The problem is
that I only have a hickie for 1/2", and would need to get a bigger one
for making the offset to get from the top of the wainscotting up & into
the breaker panel cleanly. I only need to go about 2 feet, and I suppose
I could use plastic conduit.

Any advice or suggestions would be appreciated.

Thanks!

Doug White