The power in the garage had gone out over the winter, so I just shut it off at the box. I’ve checked it a couple of times, but it’s boned.
That’s where I prefer to do a lot of my woodworking, and have had to move most of my semi-stationary tools to the basement to get things done. I actually ran an extension cord from the basement into the garage so that I could run my bandsaw for a while.
The current line goes out of the basement, directly underground (under a flagstone walkway under my back door) in an armoured cable and through another cinder block wall into the garage. The assumption is that something has settled poorly and cut the line.
I had my electrician come by today to take a look and he gave me some pretty good news. While my current panel is old and out of date with ancient breakers that cost 10x what new ones do to replace, nothing needs to be done to the actual service box. There is a second line at the bottom (currently switched off) that used to feed an electric furnace. We can use that, run a line out the basement wall above ground level, run it through an 18" deep trench I have to dig, then up and through the cinder block wall into the garage. A pony panel can be set up there and I can put in as many circuits as I want. 240 lines will actually be cheaper to install. Because the house is within 10 feet of the garage, any 120 lines need to be arc fault interrupted individually which is an additional charge. They can’t just do the whole box, of course. For some reason they don’t have to do that with the more powerful lines. I don’t have any tools that use 240, though.
Anyway, to get this done right will cost me about $1500. I’m okay with that. I’ve been putting money aside for home repairs for a while now and there is enough in there to cover it.
Now I need a trench shovel and some sand and I can get this done on my vacation in a couple of weeks. It should only take them a couple of hours once I have everything prepared.