220V wiring help..dryer outlet aint gonna work

OK, I'm trying to NOT burn down my house.

I have a new 220V Lincoln stick welder (MODEL AC-225). Just bought it at Lowe's.

http://content.lincolnelectric.com/pdfs/products/literature/e230.pdf

U1- 230V
U2- 25V
I1- 50A
I2- 225A
60Hz
X- 20%

After about an hour of Google'ing, I'm still confused.

The Welder's power cord is AWG 6, which plugs into the wall with a three prong, 6-50R 50A plug. Since the welder's cord is only about 6 feet long, I want to make an "extension cord."

I don't have 220 in my garage. The dryer is right next to my garage, so I made up a 25' extension cord.

Writing on the cord reads: (UL) ROMEX (R) SIMPULL (TM) AWG 6 CU3 CDR WITH AWG 10 GROUND TYPE NM-B 600 VOLTS. The plug at the end of the cord is a 4 prong, 14-30R 30A plug.

In theory, this cord gets plugged into my dryer outlet, which is also a 14-30R outlet.

Here's a link so you can see what I'm talking about: http://frentzandsons.com/Hardware References/plugandreceptacleconfiguratio.htm

So, I imagine I can not do this. I think I will have to rewire my outlet to enable use of a welder at 50A.

Any advice?

if I rewired my garage, could I still use the old ladies dryer on that outlet?

How much you think this is gonna cost to have done?

What kind of plug & outlet should I go to?

 

You'll get MUCH better advice than mine,but BITD,I used the outlet the stove plugged into,not the dryer.A buddy had an extension cord that was 50' long,and built out of the biggest wire we could find.It worked just fine..Dryer outlet wasn't rated high enough,but the stove was..

 

http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=83620

 

I got an electrician to install another breaker in my panel and and a plug in the wall for $200. That stuff makes me nervous

 

Yeah, I think dryer outlets are 30 amp circuits. If you can find a sove plug use it, buy some 8 guage wire and put a stove plug on one end and a whatever your welder uses on the other end. If your not comfortable doing that, maybe you should find someone who has electrical experience. It not hard to add an outlet to your garage straight off of the breaker box.

 

That's what I did, too. Well worth the money to have a safe outlet rather than something that could burn up everything I own.

 

Follow Pitts64 advice. It is absolutely important that it's done right. Breakers, wire sizes and correct outlets come into play here. Yes, you can burn your house down.

 

Yeah, that's what I've gathered so far...too much can go wrong. If it's only a few hundred bucks, I'll hire an electrician. Heck with it. Thanks for the good advice!

 

In 1976, I bought a Lincoln sputterbox and was at your stage of the learning curve. I talked to a co-worker who knew a lot about electricity and house wiring. After checking by fuse box, I learned I had 60-amp service. In other words, If I somehow could have hooked that welder to my house current at the fuse box and tried to weld at full range, I wouldn't have been able to have much else on in the house. Needless to say, I needed to completely rewire the house and upgrade the service.

Get a book at one of the big box home improvement stores called "Wiring Simplified" by H.P. Richter. You'll learn all about what you must do to wire this yourself. It tells you wire size, breaker size (hint: get a 50- or 60-amp breaker) and how to wire it.

Or get a licensed electrician, pay twice as much but get it done quickly and safely by a well-trained, bonded professional if you think you can afford it.

 

Back home my dad made up a 25' extension cord to plug the MIG welder into the 220v dryer outlet in the laundry room. It was a big heavy, hard to roll up cord, but it worked well. He's been using it like that for 10 or so years.

At my shop I made my own 20' extension out of some thick yellow cord from Lowe's. I use it almost everyday and have for the past 3 years. Cost me around $40 with the two ends. I have two breaker boxes and the welder is on a dedicated circuit. The cord rolls up like a nice air hose, real easy.

 

With some patience and some reference you can do it yourself. osage had some good advice. I put a 220 volt 60 amp circuit in our workspace, but we have heavy power, so it was on it's own circuit and breaker from the main bus. You want to make sure you have the right breaker, the right wire size, and everything is up to code. We have a warehouse so we just ran conduit, makes things easier than fishing wires through the walls.
If you do have someone do it make sure they are licensed or bonded. If not, it's just like you did it yourself anyway.
It's not that complicated, but can be daunting the first time.
Good luck.
gary.

 

if the welder has a cord end to plug into your dryer the worst it will do is trip the breaker, not burn the house down. that being said the spec for your welder call for a 50 amp circuit. so for better performance you will need a 50 circuit.

 

different tool, but when I install my air compressor in my garage I installed a new breaker in the outside fuse panel (where the main power feed comes in) and then ran the wire to a dedicated outlet I installed in the wall of my garage. It wasn't hard but I was EXTREMELY careful working inside that main power box.

 

I had one like that when I used to weld at my dad's house. It was about 50' long, heavy copper and I had to open the ba*****t window and plug it in next to a dedicated box outside of the fuse panel. I wonder what the next owner of the house thought when they ran across it.

My current garage has a 100 AMP sub panel in it and a 50 AMP dedicated breaker for the welder.

Bob

 

Why not upgrade the service to the dryer and then all bases are covered? May cost a few $$$$ depending on how long the dryer wire is.

Bob

 

bottom line is, it's not like the old days where the ins paid out because of a fire, now the ins inspector will find the souce of the fire and if it's not to code..... YOU LOSE......... nuff said

 

a house dryer is a 10 gauge wire for the 30 amp circuit. not nearly enough to cary the 50 amp draw of a welder. the posibility is if it dont trip the breaker over time of welding . the wire will got hot enough that it will melt its insulation and catch fire. do it right. dont half *** it . if you dont have the knowledge to do it right ask a electrician buddy for help. dont know anyone ask your freinds if they know someone. still cant find one. hire a pro. to close to christmas to wind up homeless.

 

Agree with everyone above, we had an electritian buddy give us a list of supplies for the breaker and chord and we picked it up for him. After that he stopped by for less than an hour one saturday morning and for only a couple bucks we had a 50ft lead that reached anywhere in the shop that allowed anything 220 to plug into.

 

I had a couple outlets installed and it wasn't that much. I have one 30a for a stove to do small powder coating stuff, a 50a for the welder and another weatherproof outlet outside in case I need 220 in the driveway/yard to do something I don't want or cant fit in the garage.

 

yea as an electrician myself i say DONT DO IT! you need a new circuit! 50 amp 240 volt! what you could do if you wanted to be cheap it where is your panel??? you could install a 240 volt 50 amp outlet right near your main panel.

then buy 6-3 s/o cord and make a cord, but that going to cost at least 3 plus bucks a foot. so in the end it might be better to call a pro to do it. if you were closer to me i would help you out.

 

Do it right,run a new circuit from the breaker box or you"ll be on here with pictures of your shop,house and car burned to the ground.Its not that much to put out to be safe.

 

Well said, you compromise the wire and the insulation and it just degrades from the draw heat. Always good to befriend an electrician or have one in the family.

Bob

 

yeah, this **** is too scary for me to mess with. Something about my family not having a roof over their heads...I'm paying somebody to come check my wiring out. I have some more wiring issues that I want to address anyways...besides...$145,000 is a LOT of money

thanks for the good advice, hopefully somebody else will stumble upon this while searching and take heed as well.

 

Because if the drier shorts out the breaker may not trip because it is over-sized for the application. Probably wouldn't have any problems but it is against code and could burn down the house.

 

Well I agree with all of the post's, but make sure the drop from the pole will handle the required load. Had to have a new drop to my shop rather than pull from the house. Safe rather than sorry

 

Our victorian house had a 100 amp panel front of the cellar, and my shop was the shade tree out back. I swapped the 100 for a 200 service & moved the 100A for a sub-panel in the back with a 60A outlet plus outside outlets.
But when I built the garage I put another 200A in it and the second meter on the same property is charged commercial, a highet rate plus $15 surcharge. So in your case, I would swap the service out for a bigger panel if it's not a 200 and put a 100 sub in the garage, plenty of options then. Not that homeline ****, the Q stuff (squareD) is much better and not a lot more cost.

 

?????????? Easy to do. 15 minute job.

 

My thoughts and understanding on this says if you upgrade the dryer to 50 am breaker so the welder will work you are not protected if the dryer gets a partial short, as long as the partial short draws less than 50 amps you could easily burn down the house, but I a firefighter, not an electrician

On a side note, my "shop" is 80 feet from the house and I put a 200 amp service box in the house, and a 100 service box in the shop, I have seperate plugs for my lathe, 3 phase converter for my mill and my mig welder and plasma cutter, they all come through on 2 wires so I cannot run them all simultaneously. According to the electric company I only have a 60 amp meter right now, but don't have a problem. The only time I notice is occasionally when alot of things are running in the house and my compressor kicks on, the lights dim for just a split second. I a working to upgrade my service to the pole, and installing a 200 amp meter soon.

 

Homeline meets all applicable codes.
http://ecatalog.squared.com/pubs/El...Single Phase Load Centers/1170BR9601R1003.pdf

.

 

Well ****, it's warm here in FL. Come on down!