i am the proud owner of a spankin new millermatic 180. i need to make a 30 amp extension cord for it, about 50 feet worth. the only thing tripping me up is that in the welder's specs, it says that 12 gauge is suitable (in fact the power cord on the 180 is 12/3) for a maximum run of 61 feet. yet the fine print states that if "flexible" cord is used, the amperage rating might have to be higher. what does "flexible" mean for this, stranded? anyone know a good source for flat 12/3 appliance wire?
Find some 10-3 extention cord cable and put the right ends on it. I bought 40' and did this years ago. Now i can reach every corner of the shop and a ways out the door.
Lowes is good ask for #10 (rated 30 amps) SO or SOJ chord then buy the plug and recepticale rated for at least 30 amps.
cool, thanks guys. does anyone know if lowes/depot have the straight blade style recepticles for plugs that are on welders? for some reason i'm having a tough time finding them at local hardware stores.
I would say stranded would be what they call flexable. For 50' I would use 10 guage wire as that length will offer a little more resistance. .....Bob
flexible is the stuff for outside use..its black and expensive...guessing its stranded rather than solid wire...just use 10/3 ....it rolls up pretty easy
Be prepared for a bit of sticker shock - the price of wire has gone through the roof in the last few years. A 100' roll of 10-3 is going to be over $150. In truth, for home use, you don't need 10-3, you can use 10-2. Remember, there's one more wire in there than is on the package (10-3 has four wires, 10-2 has 3 wires). If you use 10-3, you're going to end up tying the white & ground wires together anyway, so just use 10-2 & save yourself about 1/3 the $ on the wire. I believe 10-3 is primarily designed for 3-phase applications... I just wired my garage last weekend.
Always completely uncoil your extension cords. If you leave them coiled up, they will drop more voltage, and MIG welders are very sensitive to input voltage.
found two types of 10/3 wire at HD. one kind is for running underground, it has 4 conductors. the other kind is flexible, extension cord style, it has 3 conductors. both of which were rather pricey @ ~$1.80 a foot. the other expensive part is the plugs and receptacles. seems like the straight blade style used on welders are rated at 50 amps and are about $15 a pop. as for 10/3 extension cords to hack up for wire, all they had at HD and ACE were Rigid/Yellow Jacket brand which were only rated at 15 amps. no good. did a little searching and what i'm can do is get a 50' 30 amp cord made for RV's. these have the angled blade plug/recept (dryer style). this will get me 50' of cord and one plug for $60. then i'll get a straight blade (NEMA 5-50R) receptacle and box to fit on the welder end. thanks all for your help!!!!!
Some 240 volt welders need a nuetral and some don't. If it's plug has 3 prongs you can use 10-2 (black, white, and ground) if it has 4 prongs you'd better use 10-3 (black, red, white and a ground). I'm not sure where you got the idea to tie the white (nuetral) and the ground together but it's not right. Power comes in on the black wire and goes back on the white wire. The ground gets attached to the metal parts of the system (for example the welders ch***is) so that if a splice falls apart inside and a hot (black or red) wire comes into contact with the ch***is the circuit shorts out and trips the breaker so that a person can't get shocked by touching it. The only place where the nuetral and ground should be connected is at the main service (called bonding) Sub-panels should not be bonded. If they are connected elsewhere current will be able to flow through the ground wires which can have ill-effects. Particularly I'm reminded of a story of a dog that would always jump on top of it's dog house whenever it was raining out. Turned out that the sub-panel in the garage was bonded and electricity in the garage was traveling from the ground rod on the garage, through the wet earth, back to the service on the house, causing the dog enough irritation that it decided standing out in the rain was better than laying on the ground in it's dog house. Like most things it'll work either way, but you're better off in the end if you do it the right way.
i think what he was saying was that in a three wire config you would probably tie the two together if one wasn't being used. that's what i took it to mean anyways.
take the advice of bone coaster, the only time that the green/ground wire is used for safety, don't be unsafe and others find out later that you were cheap. I would bite the bullet and use number 8 so cable, thats sun and oil resistant. The size will help with the voltage drop about 5% in 100 feet. use four wires, the new NATIONAL ELECTRICAL CODE CALLS FOR A FOUR WIRE RECEPT. Thats two hot wires a nuetral and a ground wire
You might have a tough time getting one anywhere but a welding supply, or a regular electrical contractor supply. I made a short (3') adaptor cord, too, with a female for the welder to plug into and a male dryer/stove plug. Most places don't have a place to plug a welder in. JOE
I have had to do this before and used RV power cord from Wal-Mart and put the 220 ends on it to replace the 30/50 amp 110 ends.
I bought a nice 50 foot 8 gauge extension cable from a welding shop to use with my 220v welder when I need to. It works great. It's heavy round black cable with large molded plugs. It was cheaper to buy the ready made extension cable than to buy the wire, plug, and socket. A molded plug and socket is smaller than the kinds you put together yourself, and more weatherproof.
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