another wiring question

[97ramsport]

I am about ready to wire my oven and have a couple questions. i see all the wiring diagrams have a four wire power cord to them. how does this work? all i have is three prong plugs. what do i with the fourth wire at the plug? i think i may taking back the three wire cord i picked up today.

[CarWiz]

The fourth wire is Ground. This wire should be attached to your cabinet or chassis. Two of the other three are hot leads and the last is Common. Don't confuse Ground with Common. NEVER attach the Common line to your chassis. The Common line can have a voltage potential as it's the return for a 120v circuit. It can also have a potential if lightening strikes near your feeder lines. You can and should have a separate Ground for all equipment (chassis) in your shop. If a Ground lead is not included with your shop wiring, you can run this to an Earth rod or a metal water pipe if the pipe is contiguous with 10' of Earth contact. (Earth meaning soil.)

All 120v circuits should have three wires. One Common, one Hot, one Ground. Adding a second Hot for 240v shouldn't be any different. For safety sake, make sure your equipment has a chassis Ground.

[ed_denu]

I am about ready to wire my oven and have a couple questions. i see all the wiring diagrams have a four wire power cord to them. how does this work? all i have is three prong plugs. what do i with the fourth wire at the plug? i think i may taking back the three wire cord i picked up today.

I'm assuming you want the ability to plug your oven into an outlet and be able to disconnect it. You could permanently wire it and then you wouldn't need a plug/receptacle.

If you want to go with a plug/receptacle, depending on the amperage you require you may be able to use a 4 prong appliance plug that can be found at HD. Lowes, etc. If you need a higher amperage plug you may need to go to an electrical supply house. You need a 3 pole 4 wire grounding plug/receptacle. As an example for a 50 amp circuit you would need something like a 14-50P(plug) and 14-50R(receptacle).

Whichever way you go, make sure you connect the ground wire for safety purposes as Carwiz detailed.