Tig welder extension cord

I guess my several 6x4 and 6x3 cords should be added to my net worth?

I think I can run 3ph out about 250' and single phase out about the same.

Shrug

Gunner, whose welding shop is wired with #4

And where do you have 20 amp breaker protection on domestic circuits????? In North America????? Virtually all domestic branch circuits are 15 amp fused(or breaker protected) 14 AWG copper or 12 awg Aluminum cable. Virtually all computer power cords are 18AWG fine stranded copper, as are MOST lamp cords and many light duty extention cords. Virtually all domestic 110 volt receptacles are 15 amp and it is AGAINST CODE to install 20 amp receptacles on a 14 guage 15 amp circuit. The OCCAISIONAL dedicated circuit for things like room air conditioners are wired with 12awg and protected to 20 amp - using 20 amp receptacles and the odd "T" type power plugs - | u

Exactly. The welder has 12-3 SO Cable on it, and you have to remember that the "20 Amps for 12-AWG wire" rule is artificially imposed - in reality it's good for quite a bit more depending on the temperature rating of the cable insulation and the ambient temperature around it, especially in free air.

The reason you would not use 12-3 for the welder extension cord is voltage drop. 10-3 would work fine for a 25' to 50' welder or plasma cutter extension cord - that's what I use.

If you want that cord to go 100' or more, when you run across a coil of 8-3 or 8-4 SO cord at a good price, grab it.

That was why they invented the cordless razor. Of course, you had to hold it upright so the battery acid from the open tank cells didn't get spilled in your beard... ;-P

But this kind of stupidity still exists in certain instances - they have a rule for Commercial Track Lighting that if the track and the dimmer are rated for 20A (2400W), they have to figure the actual load at 2400W - even if you are only going to connect 400W of lights...

To get around this, they came up with permanent small breakers between the power source and track to "derate" the track to 4A (480W), thus allowing them to reduce the overall building load calculations.

-->--

That's Canada. The USA uses a mixture of 20A circuits with 15A duplex receptacles and 12 AWG copper wire, and 15A circuits w/ 14 AWG copper wire. Aluminum wiring is only used for 30A and larger circuits. (there was an experiment that went terribly wrong during the 1970's with using AL wiring for 15 and 20A circuits.)

Bob

A TIG welder uses a constant-current power supply. It's much less susceptible to voltage drop in the power feed than a MIG welder (which uses a constant voltage supply).

Bob

It has been commonplace, though not required, to wire outlets in homes on 20 amp circuits for years now, at least in the U.S.

Wrong! Typically residential wiring uses 12 AWG wire on 20 amp circuits for wall outlets. Aluminum wire is NOT allowed in residential wiring except as service entrance conductors and hasn't been for years.

That is the point I was trying to make.

Yes, but FWIW it is NOT against the NEC to install 15 amp receptacles on 20 amp branch circuits.

That would be a very small A/C unit indeed since the NEC requires that an appliance on a dedicated circuit draw no more than 75 % of the circuit's rating, or in the case of a 20 amp circuit, 15 amps. An appliance that draws

15 amps is not likely to have a NEMA 5-20P (odd T type) plug. 42

Now I see from your header that you're in Canada. I don't know a thing about the Canadian codes, my experience has all been in the USA. All my comments were intended to remain south of the 48th parallel.

42

I read the issue as having a cord rated at 25 amps feeding a load rated at 38.

Indeed. They are still finding them when the house burns to the ground.

Gunner

True indeed. An intermitant load.

Gunner

On Tue, 04 Sep 2007 23:28:21 -0400, with neither quill nor qualm, clare at snyder.on.ca quickly quoth:

Time to bite the bullet and go buy a 12/3 contractor's extension cord. They're about $60 here in the States. Dunno 'bout Canuckistan.

=========================================================== Save the Endangered Bouillons from being cubed! ===========================================================

See the NEC article on welders. It recognizes the intermittent nature of welding and allows conductors with an ampacity lower than the breaker on a welder circuit.

There's a similar situation with motor branch circuits, though the rules for sizing the breaker and wiring are very different from than those for welders.

I'm not assuming anything. See the NEC article on welders, which recognizes the intermittent nature of welding and allows for conductors with an ampacity lower than the breaker's setting on welder circuits.

There's a similar situation for motor branch circuits that accomodates the starting current of induction motors.

In this case, a 20 foot, 12 ga extension with a 38A load @ 240V results in a 2.5% drop, or 234V at the welder. Also note that the 185T is an inverter welder - it acts like a switching regulator and draws more current as the supply voltage drops, so I doubt you'd notice any difference at the output.

I get about 30A running thru a 50ft, 16 ga extension for a 14V drop. Are you sure the whole loss is in the cord?

Every single "domestic" circuit in my house is 20A. There is no 14ga wire anywhere in the house. It was even this way when I bought the house, before I replaced the main panel.

Pete C.

I'm not really up on Canadian electric codes, but they are different than in the USA:

Canada only recently changed to allow 20A receptacles that will accept a

15A plug. Previously, 15A circuits could only have 15A receptacles (just like USA) and 20A circuits could only have 20A-only receptacles (I'm not sure those even exist in the USA)

Also they wire their kitchen countertop outlets different -- IIRC they use 15A duplex receptacles and split them, using an "edison circuit" (each pair of outlets has 240V available between them) That would come in really handy if you wanted to replace one with a 240V receptacle for one of those 3000W British electric kettles that will boil a quart of water in 10 seconds ;-)

Bob

More prevalent in mobile homes than stick-built houses, almost universally AL wiring in coaches from the late 60's through 80's.

The mobile home industry always uses the rock bottom cheapest way to build coaches, so they pressed for the code change allowing it. And didn't stop until forced to by the code changing back because of the problems, they tried AL-COR "revised" devices that didn't help.

Mobile homes burn a whole lot better. No drywall, all paneling. Usually the cheap brown phenolic boxes that couldn't enclose a sneeze, let alone a fire till it goes out on it's own. And cheap Federal Pacific breakers that won't trip when you need them to.

And as the FD is snuffing out the embers the dummy homeowner goes "Gee, there was this one outlet circuit that blinked and flickered every time I ran my electric frying pan - was I supposed to call someone to check it?"

-->--

Unfortunate how the lowest quality, least resilient housing tends to align with the least attentive and proactive occupants...

You left off the MAX after the 38. If the welder has a 20% duty cycle at max output then the average current is well below 25 amps.

Dan