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Materials and Tools

All materials can be acquired from two sources. I got the Hubbell gear from my local audio specialty store, yours might have them too or you can order them from the Internet. Everything else came from Home Depot.

1 Hubbell AC Plug: HBL8215CCN (~ $15)
2 Hubbell AC outlets: HBL8200R (~ $15 x 2)
1 Power Supply Cord for Ranges, Noma 40A, 5.5ft: Cat.No.44095 (~ $8)
1 Double Gang FSE Box, 1 inch hub entry, gray (~ $4)
1 Double Outlet Cover Plate, white (~ $1)
2-foot length of 12 AWG multi strand wire, black and white (~ $1)

Total: ~ $60

For tools you will need a good Philips screwdriver, a pair of strong wire cutters, a utility knife, a small saw, some sand paper, and a connection tester (I used my multimeter to same effect). Also Caig DeoxIT as an optional treatment.

Design and Construction

There are several reasons why I chose to use a range power cable. It has the gauge I was looking for: two 8 AWG wires and two 10 AWG wires. It has a molded strain relief built in with a metal ring for tightening - this makes it easy to attach the power cord to our box. And last, it was very affordable.

Given that I had four wires to work with I took one 8 AWG wire as live (red), the other 8 AWG wire as neutral (black), one 10 AWG wire as ground (white), and the other 10 AWG wire as a partial shield (bare braid wires). In choosing which wire to use, I went based on gauge and not based on standard color-coding. As long as you do the same at the plug end you are OK.

The range power cable comes with a standard range plug. Go ahead and cut that plug off - we will be installing the Hubbell plug instead. Once you have decapitated the range cord, take apart the Hubbell plug and slide the back end of it on to the cord pushing it towards the molded strain relief. You will use this back end part of the plug during its final assembly, so just keep it there for now and proceed to strip the wires. Remove the outer jacket of the cord, about 1.5", and separate the four wires. Strip off the insulation from the red, black and white conductors. The fourth conductor is a braid of bare wires originally it was used as ground but we will use it also as a partial shield. Remember white is ground, red is live and black is neutral for this project.

Since 8 AWG is too big to fit in the wire receptacles of the Hubbell plug, you will have to cut away some strands. Cut away several at a time until you have a nice fit. Do this for both the red and the black conductors. The white conductor is 10 AWG, although smaller, you will still have to trim it down a bit because you will also feed several bare wire strands of the partial shield. You wont be able to fit the entire partial shield but fit as many strands as you can. These are solid core strands so three or four will do. Just intertwine the white conductor strands with the partial shield strands before pushing everything in. You may want to avoid touching the conductors with your bare fingers, not because of potential shock (nothing is plugged in yet), but because you don't want the natural moisture of your hands and fingers to deposit on the conductors. Use gloves or simply a piece of cloth as an intermediate layer when twisting. If you have a solution that prevents oxidization you may apply it on the exposed wires before pushing them into the plug. I used Caig DeoxIT. Tighten the screws clamping the wires and put the whole plug together tightening the outer screws and clamping the cord down.

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