Repurposing a Built in Oven Cabinet Part 1
Repurposing for Counter Space and Street Cred
Our microwave died for the third time recently and we did not want another counter top oven hogging all the counter. So Having 2 built in ovens too many that did not work we decided to replace them with a combo microwave on top and oven on the bottom. I had already resized the cabinet from a 24 inch width opening to a 27 inch for the new oven. Well they were not going to be able to deliver it till January 15th, so time being an issue and family coming over next week for the holidays we searched for another solution. I found a great deal for a countertop microwave/convection oven and now we are just going to put it on a shelf at the top of the "Repurposed cabinet" when I am finished. The cost difference between getting the combo oven and the counter top one I bought are exponential. $140 vs $2,000 or more! Maybe it will be more than a temporary solution. We will see.
Going From One 220 volt oven wiring to Two 110 volt outlets
This was the most interesting part of this project for me. When I opened up the junction box I found 5 wires. Black, White, neutral and Green plus a red wire. Having never worked with a 220 circuit I was not sure what to do with the red wire. With 110 you just have the black as the hot and the white and ground. It turned out to be pretty simple. Now the first thing you do is shut off the breaker and check that your wires are not hot. (Note: I had already done this the week before when I removed the oven.) After making sure I had the breaker off I opened up the junction box and was able to see how the oven had been wired. I removed the wires from the flexible tubing and cut the wires to a proper length in order to connect them to the 2 new outlets. I could have just used one of the hot lines and left the other capped and just put one outlet. But the box is a double and I have 2 separate hot lines for 2 counter top ovens which both draw a considerable amount of power. I spoke to one of the guys at ace hardware and one of them told me I could just use the black for one outlet and the red for the other. The way it is done is pretty simple he explained. When you buy the outlets it tells you on the back which is the neutral and which is the hot. If you have doubts, the silver is the neutral and the brass is the hot. He also mentioned that the breaker for 220 should be changed but I chose instead to add outlets with built in surge protection. One outlet got the black connected to the hot terminal(brass color) and one outlet got the red on the hot terminal. Now the neutral is a single wire so you ideally would split it at the large white wire to 2 smaller 14 or 12 gauge wires( see the image below) with a wire cap or other connector and then connect the 2 wires to the individual outlets at the silver terminals. Seeing that the box was grounded I removed the green wire. I then double checked the ground from the ground terminal in one of the outlets to the metal juntion box after mounting the outlets.
Painting The Cabinet
Painting the cabinet was pretty straight forward. The cabinet was pretty dirty so it needed some TLC. I painted the back wall first because it was the worst looking and then the cabinet. First coat didnt quite do so as usual a second coat gave it the final touch.
