The top picture does seem to be an innovative way to deal with expansion in the PVC riser. If I wasn't worried about abrasion protection I might be OK with it.
BTW I have seen the 240v receptacle you show. One of our CEs had a 5-15 cap with both circuit prongs blown clean off with a shirt sleeve to match. We didn't want to see his shorts.
Someone had labelled it "floor buffer only" and that seemed to be all they thought you had to do. The ferro-resonant power supply in the keypunch tried to make it 120 but no joy.
