Suppose I'm running some wire in EMT into the side of an electric panel, and the electric panel is flush mounted into a dedicated stud bay extension / bump out.
Here's a sample photo with a panel that's only 2-3" out, where the rest of the big hole was filled with foam.
I typically do this by drilling a 3/4" hole into the (metal) panel, and a much bigger hole (roughly 1-1/4" or 1-1/2") into the wood stud. The bigger hole is needed to fit an entire EMT male terminal into the wood stud. I can probably get away with a slightly smaller hole if I use a compression terminal rather than a screw terminal, but those are harder to attach tightly.
Either way, I need to drill a 1"+ hole in the wood stud.
Is there a better way to do this, without drilling such a big hole into the wood stud?
Ideally I'd still prefer to go straight out of the side of the panel (rather than going in-wall to the top or bottom and coming out into conduit via a box extension). But if this is really uncommon, then I'd like to know how most electricians terminate conduit into such a panel.
Best Answer
If the stud ("a dedicated stud bay extension") was put there just to flush mount the panel, and is not structural, cut it, or cut away most of it to expose the knockouts on the side of the panel.
EMT as a wiring method is better served by surface mount panels. That's the better way to do it you're looking for.
Most wiring from flush-between-studs panels goes from top and bottom because those are the accessible sides of the panel that don't involve trying to make access where access has been impeded by the mounting method. Those are also the sides that allow the installation to remain "hidden" which is normally the reason a box is flush-mounted at all. Flush mounting and then running exposed EMT is somewhat unusual because it's combining things that don't go well together.
One method to solve this in the illustrated example or things close to it is to punch one big hole into one of the large side knockouts and install a nipple (less than 24" long) of IMC or RMC to a section of gutter or a large junction box surface-mounted next to the "bumped-out-flush-mounted" panel, and connect your EMT runs to the gutter or junction box. Keeping the nipple less than 24" long allows 60% fill and no thermal derate for the number of circuits.