Greetings, Perhaps someone could offer some advice... I want to connect my portable generator to my ac transformer type welder. The generator has a 4 wire 240 volt twist lock connector with hot ,hot, neutral and ground connections. The welder has only hot, hot and ground(neutral) connections. I know for a fact that the generators neutral is connected to the frame ground. Do I connect the welders two hots and the ground(neutral) to the generators hots and neutral and leave off the ground connection or do I tie the ground and the neutrals together at the welder connector. Thanks Martin
Welder to Generator
Apr 20, 2004
4 Replies
I'm not an electrician. I would connect the two hots and ground, which should only be used for equipment safety ground. The neutral is a current carrying conductor if you need 120 VAC. By the way, how do you reference your generator to ground? My little 120 V generator I used for fishing lights required a ground rod to be driven and tied to the frame.
Regards,
Pete Keillor
That is correct - in a pure 220 circuit, the netural is not used - its just the "center tap" to derive 110. The question I have is, how big a generator, and how big a welder? The Generacs, and Home Depot
5,000-ish watt jobs have really soft rotor impeadances and peak/surge current may be an issue. My 5,000 Watt Sams Club DeVilbis won't start my old Craftsman 1HP air compressor. (Damn power hungry Leason motors)Use the two Hots and the Ground and do not connect to the neutral terminal.
The ground connection on the welder is *not* the "neutral" it is the ground and its function is grounding. The neutral is grounded (at the generator only) but it is not the ground, even though it is at the same voltage potential, its function is a return path for 120V loads. In a line powered system the neutral is connected to the ground (water pipe and/or grounding rod in the earth) and the grounding wires and neutral wires share a common bus only at the main service entrance panel.
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