Welder/generator

I have aquired a used Miller 225 bobcat generator/welder. It has a 16 horse Onan engine. I think it run but have not had time to start it yet.

Iit has a 8,000 watt generator. Is this decent sized? I was hoping to use it to power the house or at least part of it in power outages. (And of course to weld with it). I read on it that it could also do tig and mig but cant see exactly how. I guess you woudl have to buy more equipment.

Anyway, I have a 50 amp welder plug in my attached garage and also the metal detached garage I have been working on. Can I make a plug and plug one end to the generator and one end to the plug and "backfeed" the panel in the case of a power outage? (Of course turning off the main circuit breaker) My welding plug goes to a sub panel that feeds fromt he main panel.

My metal building is about 70 feet away or maybe a little less. Is this too far to keep the generator and feed the house throrugh that welder plug?

Do these things weld well?

Reply to
stryped
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Yes, until you forget and kill a lineman Yes they weld well

Personally..my recommendation is to install a Transfer Switch according to code, and hook your generator to that when the power fails.

Failure to use a proper transfer switch, and you screw up and harm or kill a lineman...and you will be in jail,then court, then prison for a rather significant amount of time.

Gunner

Reply to
Gunner Asch

Around here they ground the power lines before working on them. That would short out your generator.

jsw

Reply to
Jim Wilkins

Too bad no one taught Ronnie Adams that....

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Rotahand

07-13-2005, 07:39 PM This is no prank. The lineman killed yesterday was working for Pike Electric and picked up a line that was connected to someones house that hooked up a generator and did not disconnect from the distribution system. The linemans name was Ronnie Adams, age unknown. He had two children and a wife. As far as I know he was from Louisiana. They are trying to set up a fund for his family, but nothing I have heard of yet. I will let yall know more as I hear of it. I wish they would really teach folks the proper connection of generators, this was a really tragic and preventable accident. Stay Safe and think about it before you do it.

And an "almost"....

m_kohner

07-14-2005, 06:19 PM another safety tip notify customers on the affected tap you are on that the power company is there restoring power, i was working toronado damage a while back a customer had a generator in a garage back feeding through a 220 volt dryer recptace exhauste going through the dryer vent we were 1 home down repairing the broken primary made all connections had the cut out open and when we closed in....you guessed it....... a nice quiet honda generator in a garage. no one injured, all the customer had to do is kill the main disconnect.....take care be safe......P.S. I drug up from pike today for some of my own reasons.....one less pike rat...lol....mike

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County, Fl Wednesday, September 2, 2009 10:12 AM EDT
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Bartow electric department employee escaped a brush with death Monday night when a downed line he was repairing became energized by a homeowner?s generator.

Eddie Watson, an apprentice lineman, was grasping a line while wearing leather gloves as he worked to repair a line that was brought down by a falling tree in Monday night?s fierce thunderstorm.

When a homeowner whose house was served by the line started up a generator, it sent a surge of power through the line, Interim Electric Dir. Eschol Radford said.

The electricity went through a transformer, stepping up the voltage from

110 volts generated by the generator to 7,200 volts, the transmission voltage. Usually, the transformer does just the opposite, stepping down voltage from 7,200 to 110 volts for service lines to homes.

?He was lucky,? Radford said of Watson.

?Fortunately, he had a young guy, Scott Harrison, a lineman helper, working with him. Scott knocked him off the line and probably saved his life.?

Watson was rushed by ambulance to Lakeland Regional Medical Center, then transferred to the Tampa General Hospital burn center ?to keep an eye on him overnight.

?Fortunately, he only had a couple of burns on his hands; he was really lucky,? Radford said.

Watson was sent home on Tuesday, ?and is doing really well.?

Reply to
Gunner Asch

Interesting that the power company got fined as a result of that death:-

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Best regards, Spehro Pefhany

Reply to
Spehro Pefhany

Ayup. Ronnie opened and grounded everything properly...except for one transformer at the end of a dead end street. And that one killed him.

Gunner

Reply to
Gunner Asch

The final penalty was $12,000, which seems a bit light. I assume that the next of kin sued.

Joe Gwinn

Reply to
Joseph Gwinn

They usually just cut off your service drop and make sure you are the last one in the state to get hooked back up, that is if you are a nice guy. If not you will be hauled into court and taken apart.

John

Reply to
John

What about an interlock kit somethign like this:

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does a typical installation look like?

I would have to move the furnace and crawlspace circuits from my main panel to my sub panel. Then I could put a 50 amp breaker to my welding plug. This contraption the best I can tell makes it physically impossible to turn the 50 amp breaker on without the main breaker being off.

It may just be less hassel to run extension cords.

Reply to
stryped

Can't see the link. The b-in-l's house has one set up so there's a gray box over the top of the receptacle on the house, open end points down. It's rigged so no part of the plug is exposed. Has the transfer switch built in. So even if it's wet, snowing and dark, the connection can be made and it'll stay dry. Makes for a neat installation, mounting point outside being just opposite the main breaker panel inside. The only thing he doesn't have is a generator hut for long runs. His gen-set is large enough to have wheels, so he can hitch it up to a 4-wheeler and drag it over to the house from the tool shed. He had a pro set the connection point up for him, something you might consider from an insurance standpoint. If it's not up to code and they find, after a fire, that you've cobbled something together, you may not collect.

Stan

Reply to
stans4

Exactly. Pretty much everyone after the broken power line, would need to not be using electricity at all, otherwise backfeeding would simply stall the generator.

I would say "most surviving HV electricians". :)

It is like saying "there are no old bold captains".

i
Reply to
Ignoramus11203

I have aquired a used Miller 225 bobcat generator/welder. It has a 16 horse Onan engine. I think it run but have not had time to start it yet.

CY: Please change the oil. A most neglected service task. Use good brand of oil. I like Castrol.

Iit has a 8,000 watt generator. Is this decent sized? I was hoping to use it to power the house or at least part of it in power outages. (And of course to weld with it). I read on it that it could also do tig and mig but cant see exactly how. I guess you woudl have to buy more equipment.

CY: Most consumer model generators run up to 5,500 watts, so

8k is on the large side.

Anyway, I have a 50 amp welder plug in my attached garage and also the metal detached garage I have been working on. Can I make a plug and plug one end to the generator and one end to the plug and "backfeed" the panel in the case of a power outage? (Of course turning off the main circuit breaker) My welding plug goes to a sub panel that feeds fromt he main panel.

CY: Should work. Of course, it's a risk that some day you'll forget the main breaker, and kill a lineman.

My metal building is about 70 feet away or maybe a little less. Is this too far to keep the generator and feed the house throrugh that welder plug?

CY: Depends how big the connecting wire is, and what type of connections, how clean the connections are. Should work fine. 8000 watts / 240 volts = about 36 amps, which should feed through 10 gage copper, or 8 gage aluminum. 10/cu is actually rated for 30 amps, but it's fairly close. Please realize that you'll use gasoline faster with more load, figure a galon an hour minimum.

Do these things weld well?

Reply to
Stormin Mormon

Is there a proper and accepted way to run generator extension cords into the house without letting carbon monoxide in or heat out?

I bought several NEMA 5-15 panel mount recessed plugs to use for this, first as show-and-tell samples for the fire and building inspectors. My current cunning plan is that they would connect only to single indoor receptacles, not the house wiring, near the refrigerator, washing machine and air conditioner so I could run those individually from a generator.

Otherwise I can run everything I need on less than 100W from inverters during an outage, recharging the VRLA battery packs once a day outdoors.

jsw

Reply to
Jim Wilkins

"cord under the front door" worked for me.

The individual recepticles sound good. I'd like to hear more about the rechargable pack. Is that just for some lights?

Reply to
Stormin Mormon

My doors and windows are *tightly* sealed.

Local fire departments have started to go around checking all generators they hear during an extended outage. I really don't want them shutting me down when I need the power badly.

Here is one, also I have a few computer UPSs to scatter around so there are no cords on the floor to trip over.

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My HDTV and this laptop both use less than 30W and will run over an hour on a gel cell in decent condition. I have some solar pathway lights that take easily removeable AA NiCads for general lighting when the power goes out. As long as I don't turn on a bright light my night vision is good enough to walk around by candlelight and the solar lights are brighter than a candle when their diffusers are removed.

A generator will recharge the NiCads, gel cell battery packs and the Tripplite UPS in an hour or two, out on the back porch protected from the weather. The other brands of UPS recharge very slowly.

jsw

Reply to
Jim Wilkins

Some months ago, I saw a mechanical interlock. It was a piece of metal with a slide tube. You'd bolt it to the front of your circuit panel. It would allow one breaker on one side to be turned on, if the other was turned off, to allow the slider metal piece to slide the other way. Hard to describe.

Reply to
Stormin Mormon

I had a Lincoln Weldanpower with the 16 Onan, and I liked it. I used it a lot, and it only use a couple of plugs, oil filters, and air filters. Damn fine machine. Now, I know you have a Miller, but just saying ...........

Steve

Reply to
Steve B

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