Reply by hisparadox

get yourself a copy of the code rules for you particular area, along with a basic wiring book, and refer back to there.

where Im from, as a home owner, I am allowed to do my own wiring to code, as long as it is inspected by an electrical underwriter, in my own shop, I have a 100 amp panel, I ran #2 wire from a 100 amp breaker in the house panel to a sub panel in the shop 160 feet from the house, I also ran a spare number 2 wire just in case one failed, this is all housed in 2 inch conduit.

for lighting, I ran 14 gauge in conduit on the ceiling to florsecent fixtures, I had originally used home depot bought 85 watt compact floursecent fixtures, but replaced them with regular 4 foot shop lights, the fixtures home depot sells for the 85 watt cfls are garbage, and came within hours of burning the garage down, closer inspection revealed no heat shields, last time I buy any product sold by lights of america.

for basic 120 power, I ran 12gauge wire and 20 amp circuts, and did the same for basic 220 circuts
for more specific uses, I go right back to the panel and run as required for the planer, a vacuum molder and some other high current demands.

your main service into the shop is what you want to be the most generous with, voltage drop can be a killer on equipment, in fact it doesnt hurt to have a voltage gauge in full view to monitor your voltage, no point in running a machine to its death when the input voltage is only 99 volts

I try not to run any machine on less than 120 volts of power