If youre wiring a 3 prong plug you need 2 conductor cable with a ground. The better solution is to plug three prong plugs only in into three slot receptacles that are grounded.
Leads Direct Wiring An American Plug
Grounded plug wiring diagram. The worry is that a miswired plug poses a fairly serious shock hazard. The key is to make sure you connect the wires to the proper terminals in the plug. The danger isnt fire. A ul knot secures the cord. Then fit a plug in circuit tester onto the cords other end. To see if a cord is working properly plug it into a three prong receptacle.
A grounded contact at the bottom center is crescent shaped. Where a grounded outlet is not possible as in older wiring some protection is offered by installing a gfci ground fault circuit interrupter receptacle at that location. Wiring a new plug isnt difficult but its important to get the hot and neutral wires connected to the proper prongs. Three prong plugs have a hot wire a neutral wire and a ground wire. Dont use this receptacle when no ground wire is. Wiring a grounded duplex receptacle outlet.
Wire a plug to maintain correct polarity. Reassemble the replacement plug and tighten the screws holding it to the cord. The testers lights will indicate whether the wires are hooked up correctly and the cord is grounded. The hot wire goes on the brass terminal screw the white wire goes on the chrome one and the ground wire goes on the green one. This is a polarized device. The long slot on the left is the neutral contact and the short slot is the hot contact.
When replacing a three prong plug connect the black wire in the cord to the brass terminal screw the white wire to the chrome terminal and the green or bare wire which is the ground wire to the green ground screw in the plug. This is a standard 15 amp 120 volt wall receptacle outlet wiring diagram. In 110v plug wiring youre dealing with 14 or 12 gauge wire.