Gently Removing an Electrical Box Punchout

[bimmer1980]

I have the "c" clamp style vice grips that would do great for this, as long as the punch out is 1" or biger, but a small c clamp would be eazy to use too for the small ones. I just happen to be doing all the electrickel in my 3rd shop Im just about done building. the effing square D POS breaker box has punchouts.... but the effing things are not centered withen each other. and the largest size is what I need... but... for some stupid reason they did not make that one round. they made the smaller ones the back edge of the biuger one... yup 2 different radii so the fitting wont go through.I had to take it all appart and put in milling ,achine and use a carbide hole saw to cut the holes.....you cant fix stupid. some know it all effing moron engineer. to top that off all the reciptical boxes are made for 1/2 emt fittings... I wanted to use 1" conduit throught, but there is none to be found due to covid 19.so I went with 3/4 and had to machine every box for 2-3 fittings. oh well Ive always got to be different and I like things the way I want them so Im used to it.

FYI, there are sizing rules by the NEC for the co suit size, box size, minimum distance from the nipple to the far side of the box per conduit size, etc. Hence, the reason the boxes were limited in size. While I'm not an electrician, I did pick up a couple of technical handbooks for the NEC code. (I'm an engineer.....)

I did all of my garage with conduit, so I have worked with it ... ;-) There's over 50 outlets, so it was a fair bit of conduit and boxes .......

My main panel has six 2" conduits coming into it. To meet code, I used a 18x18 junction box below the panel. This is due to the rules I refered to above.

Also keep in mind, that unless you are using larger wire that requires the 1" or larger wire, you are limited in the number of circuits per conduit before you start de-rating. Generally, the code encourages you to run one or two circuits per conduit.

I get that the main panel punch outs were not good for you, but generally a set of dikes or a punch out tool work nicely.... While I'm sure the milling machine did a nice job, that was a bit over kill, but use what you have! :-)

I have a hand held hydraulic punch tool that will knock out 1/2 to 2" trade size holes.

Hopefully this is helpful, let me know if you have questions...