OK, now that I have my welder setup in my garage, I'm starting to think
about what I might need in the future. If I am working on a project that
does not easily fit inside of my garage or is further away than I can move
the welder with the existing power cable combined with the length of the
existing welding leads, I figure that I'm going to need to extend one of
them at least. Let's say that I want to extend my reach to 50 ft. Should
I buy / build a 50 ft 220V extention cable for the power going into the
unit or should I buy 100 ft of welding cable and extend each of the leads
50 ft?
Also, is there a way to install removeable cables on the Lincoln AC-225 so
that I can use the short cables when I'm in my garage and the longer cables
when I need to work outside of the garage?
It's going to be cheaper making an extension cord for the 220 side
than buying heavy fine-stranded cable for the LV side of the box.
Particularly these days with the cost of copper what it is. The
difference is probably at least $4-5/ft.
Male and female connector sets are available, both online and at
welding suppliers, there's no standards. Pick one type that's readily
available, Dinse is what's coming in from Europe and the far east.
Just make sure your connections to the cables on both sides are good,
they'll heat up and maybe cause a fire if not.
Stan
As the others have said, you will probably do better making a mains extension
cable rather than having over-long welding cables (another reason is that, if
you leave two separate 50ft coils of welding cable lying about when welding,
you can get interesting heating effects near to them).
Assuming you are in the US, probably you will need to use NEMA L6-30 plugs and
sockets or, possibly, one size larger. Specifically the twist lock or similar
locking connectors to avoid them coming apart accidentally. I would personally
prefer a connector like the BS4343/ CEE17 ones that are IP44 (splash proof)
rated, but I don't know what the NEMA equivalent is.
I would imagine that you would want something like 133/.0112 cable, that's
the equivalent of what I'm using for my 180A/9kVA oil cooled welder extension
lead in the UK. That should be good for about 30A continuous use. You may well
get away with one size smaller cable if you allow for the intermittent use
that welders tend to get. Check with the local suppliers, though :-)
When you are using the welder inside the garage, merely plug it into the wall
socket directly, rather than with the extension lead.
These opinions are worth exactly what you paid for them...
Regards
Mark Rand
RTFM
With the price of copper these days, it's far cheaper to make up a 240
volt extension cord. You can even cheat and use some NM-B cable instead
of the proper rubber covered extension cord (SJ or similar). That said,
it's far more convinient to have long welding cables and not have to
drag the heavy welder around.
The real solution is to run the main power to a suitable spot just
inside the door. You can weld inside in the open area or outside with
the same cables.
For the cables you can buy male/female connectors at your local weld
shop or on line. I have decided to standardize my equipment using the
plugs and and jacks I get as Miller replacement parts. Run about $8 per
plug or jack. I mount a jack on the welder front pannel, much neater
than hveing stub cable hanging out.
The stock cables on the Tombstone are too short for anything other than
simple bench work. Depends on what you are welding, I like to be able to
work all the way around the project and still have some slack. So if you
park a 16' trailer about 10' from the welder, you will want at least 30'
for the stinger cable. The ground cable can usually be 10' to 15' shorter.
For your unit I'd suggest taking the longer stinger cable, making it the
ground cable, buy a new piece of welding cable at least 25' long for the
stinger.
Home Welder wrote:
You are going to get a tough lesson in global economics when you go to buy 50'
of new 8SO3 cable, or even 10SO3 cable. Copper wire is really expensive now!
It will be a lot more work and expense to fit welding lead receptacles and plugs
than it would have been to buy a welder with one in the first place, but sure,
you can do it. But it makes way more sense to extend the power cord.
GWE
--
Posted via a free Usenet account from http://www.teranews.com
A pre-made 25 ft 8/3 220V 50A extension cable is $80.29 at:
http://store.weldingdepot.com/cgi/weldingdepot/8/3-25ext.html?id=GqhM2fpM
A 50 ft one is $134.57...
http://store.weldingdepot.com/cgi/weldingdepot/8/3-50ext.html?id=GqhM2fpM
If you are swapping the leads to the electrode holder and ground wire
out, you're looking at needing a cable size of '2' according to:
http://store.weldingdepot.com/pdf/weldingcable.pdf
According to:
http://store.weldingdepot.com/cgi/weldingdepot/0002x.html
50 ft of that (which will get you 25 ft from the welding unit) will run
you $77.50...
100 ft of that (which will get you 50 ft from the welding unit) will run
you $155...
As such, it appears that the 220V extension is a bit cheaper... If you
wire up an extension cord yourself from parts at Home Depot, perhaps you
might come out a bit cheaper... Either way, it doesn't look like there's
going to be that much of a difference in the price one way or the other...
Considering the length of the AC-225's leads, I'm more inclined to
suggest a combination of the two approaches... Extend the welding leads
enough so that you don't need to move the unit around as much once you
get it to your outside area AND write up an extension cord to get the
welding unit closer to the area where you need to work... Personally,
I'm not that crazy about putting a 220V outlet near the garage door
since it is going to get wet from water dripping off the garage door and
from a car when it is pulled into the garage... Of course, that's
assuming that the garage still has room for a car to be pulled into
it... That's not the case with many folks... I can still pull *one* car
into my 2-car garage... The other size if filled up with a lawn tractor,
a 600cc sport bike, and other stuff... I would love to extend my garage
to a 3-car and a workshop in the back, but the fuckin' HOA Nazis around
here are rather anal about *everyone*'s house looking exactly the
same... "You're going to have vanilla ice cream whether you like it or
not!" Once my daughter's off to college, I'm going to move someplace
with a crappy school district, low school taxes, and no fuckin' HOA...
When you buy into a place with a HOA, you marry it and there ain't no
divorce. I am in the process of selling my place and buying one somewhere
a lot cheaper. It took some doing, but I finally convinced the real
estate lady to not even bother showing me anything where there is a HOA.
As it stands now, I have a place on the line with a shop building that is
three times the size of the garage I have now...
I have my MIG welder on a cart, so it is easy to drag around wherever I
need it. And I made two 50 ft. extension cords for it, one of proper rubber
cord and the other of Romex for the rare occasion when I need to get
well away from the shop.
Jerry
Let's just say that if someone decided to OJ this marriage and I was
on the jury, I wouldn't vote to convict them... Hell, I might even
volunteer the locations of a couple of creeks where the gators have
been looking a bit undernourished...
Just make yourself an extension cord of 10/3 romex. Use the same plug
and receptacle as the welder requires. I have such a cord, about
150'long, that I use for my Miller Thunderbolt when I want to weld on a
gate post or something similar that's not close to my house. You can
put multiple receptacles on the end for using other machinery such as
air compressors, even put a 110v receptacle for drills and saws.
To the question about removable cables, yes, a welding supply house can
fix you up.
I made myself an extension cord (30 feet long, proper wire size, very
flexible) about 10 years ago. Changed all my 220 equipment (3 welders plus
lots of woodworking stuff that I like to drag outdoors to minimize cleanup)
over to the same plug so I could use it with all my stuff.
Last week I thought that I would install a 220v outlet near my car hoist.
Would need 42 feet of #6 wire (3 pieces) from the panel. Went to Home Depot
for the wire and realized I didn't want to make a $ 170 investment in a new
plug. BTW, the plug would have been only 22 feet from an existing plug,
but, by the time you run up the walls, across the ceiling, back down etc.
the footage adds up.
Will continue to use the extension cord until copper prices drop
dramatically.
Ivan Vegvary
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