On one I hit the nails in from the side, on the other I hit the screws holding the top plate on. Grrr. I ended up going at a slight angle in between the two so I didn't end up with three sets of holes. That said though, it still broke my drill bit. The miscolor at the end is where it chipped off.
After literally 4 hours of wrangling, I got it installed.
Unfortunately in the wrangling, it actually broke the wire clamp on the main.
I also originally had Romex clamps as well, but I couldn't get it installed with them on there. As it is, I didn't get the box all the way up. The electrical tap was supposed to be in the Romex clamps. I put it on to hold the wires together to feed it into the panel. I didn't get far enough to get to it.
Also a little bit of the insulation got chewed up. I did check, and none of the wires themselves got damaged. The yellow insulation all gets stripped off once you are inside the panel, so it won't be noticeable.
All the wires, including the side ones are all ready now. I installed the breakers and essentially assigned breakers to wires. It does look like the wires are long enough. Barely.
Another annoyance: I had to modify the Homeline Square D ground bar to fit in a Homeline Square D panel. The holes were the wrong places to mount it in the panel.
Even though it isn't required, I connected the ground bars. The panel itself would bridge the ground. It is 6 gauge, just like the main ground.
That said, outside of actually doing the wiring, the panel is installed. The insulation has been replaced.
What I did would likely fail an inspection if there was one, but there doesn't appear to be any danger, nothing is going to arc. Some lessons learned: even though the panel is designed for a top feed, it really wasn't worth it to run the main feed wires behind the panel. I should have run them in from the bottom hole. I also should have installed the panel, then ran the wires through the top plate. Even embedded in the wall, the panel didn't fit well, the screw holes had to be angled back to reach the studs, so putting in trim won't be easy. Pretty much anything I could have done in the wrong order, I did.
I will probably finish the wiring tomorrow. I also realized that I have nothing that will cut the main feed wires. I will poke people tomorrow to see if someone has a set that I can borrow, and maybe a set of electricians pliers. The electricians pliers were in my toolbox that was stolen, and I don't want to spend 25 dollars for another set when this is the last time I will use them. I never had any cable cutters, and are almost 40 bucks for a set. I can do it with a pocket knife if I have to, but I do need a solution for cutting the main feeder.
When this train wreck was done it was after 6, so I just went home. I kinda wanted to punch something at that point, so I decided not to do anything stupid.
I do need to get a move on though. Fall is just around the corner. The people moving into my apartment wanted to take a walkthrough Monday, so I will have to clean up a little tomorrow, so I will need to get a new broom tomorrow. Turns out the handle I bought for the painter doesn't fit in the broom. Ugh. But at least the colors are coming in. It is still August though, which is really obscenely early, even for the earlier spots.
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