why are most guys so reluctant to wire up power tool...

grumpyvette

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why are most guys so reluctant to wire up power tool outlets.
Jack called me up to tell me about a neighbor who was selling an older miller 180 amp 220 volt mig welder, during the conversation he mentioned the price "about 20 cents on the dollar" making it a screaming bargain, and the fact that, while he was very tempted to buy it and get me to teach him the basics of mig welding, he had no 220volt outlet in his garage to plug it into even if he bought it!
I told him to have the guy demonstrate it worked by welding two large bolts to some scrap angle iron, and if it worked at the price he quoted he would be a total fool to pass up that bargain. Id be over to help him wire up the outlet.....well he calls me back and says it works and he bought it!
so I drive over...well this was so simple it was mind boggling, his power panel was located in the garage, and where he wanted the outlet was only 8 feet further along the wall, I took him down to home depot and bought a the proper outlet, mount box, 1" conduit, 8 ga wire and other minor stuff and we had it up running in about 3 hours and at least 2 hours of that was spent getting wire, parts etc.
most welders come with instruction booklets or you can find them on-line that will tell you what gauge wire and amps the outlet and cord should be.
a dual 40 amp breaker 8/3 wire. is whats usually required but look it up, many only require a 30 amp /240 volt breaker & 10/3 wire
The instruction booklet that came with the mig will state the circuit needed to power it. Look at the cord on the mig to see the configuration of the prongs. Buy a receptical and mount cord if you need one to match it. If the receptical is a 30amp/ 240volt then you need a 2pole 30amp breaker, 10/2 romex, the romex will have 3 10 ga wires in it a black, a white, and a bare, or green,. The black,white will be the 2 hots or two 120 volt circuits that give you 240volt,s the bare or green wire will be the ground. On the receptical there should be a screw which is green thats were the bare goes. The other 2 screws are for the hots and it dosen't matter which screw gets what wire. They just need to be firmly secured.

READ THRU THIS THREAD
viewtopic.php?f=28&t=5

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I'm bringing this up because I have recently seen two different guys locally have issues, with cheap extension cords, one guy got a darn good shock, and burned finger when he picked up a cord with worn insulation and a corroded plug off wet grass, that was not plugged into a GFI outlet, the other through luck did not have a garage fire when he melted a extension cord , by pulling to high of an electrical load through too small a wire gauge,
no garage or shop can function without at least a couple 110 volt extension cords,
a 100 foot 10 ga and a 50 ft 10 ga and a 25 ft three outlet 10 ga would be about the minimum ID want, on hand.

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now I have several 12 ga extension cords also, but they only get used for drop lights or a trickle charger, never anything that draws serious amps!
anything less than 12 gauge should not be used in my opinion, but I doubt 1 in 10 guys even looks at the wire gauge when buying an extension cord!
extension cords, for your shop are one area I constantly see guys, either scrimp on quality,or just ignore even thinking about the potential problems a under size gauge wire can cause.
yeah I know the low quality 16 ga and 14 ga extension cords are much more common and dirt cheap!
or in many cases, the people that buy them,are probably totally clueless that the quality of the insulation and gauge of the wire maters!
your typical home use, extension cord is most likely a pitifully inadequate 16 gauge ,
this will work for a drop light or similar lower amp draw use, but its far from ideal.
One guy I used to work with hooked up christmas lights on his tree with a 16 gauge cord that caught fire! if he was not looking at the tree at the time it happened he might have lost his home!
hook anything with a significant amp draw, like a hair drier , heat gun or even some of the larger, and more powerful electric hand tools, too a 100 foot long 16 ga or even a 14 ga extension cord and its can eventually heat up enough to be a fire hazard,
example
one of my neighbors bought a 1.5 hp drill press at a local business that closed, and hooked it up in his garage with his extension cord which happened to be a 14 gauge, he was drilling several large boards , when the drill quite, he asked me to look at his newly purchased drill that had
"BURNED OUT THE FIRST TIME HE USED IT"
I quickly found the extension cord had melted a conductor internally , and burned through the insulation, the drill press was fine once he purchased a replacement, 10 gauge extension cord.
BTW its ALWAYS a good idea to have shop outlets wired with 10 ga copper wire, and use 20 amp breakers feeding GFI outlets

http://garage.grumpysperformance.com/index.php?threads/how-to-wire-a-shop.5/

http://www.homedepot.com/p/Leviton-...est-GFCI-Outlet-White-R12-GFNT2-0RW/205996739
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cheap junk (typical home use 16 gauge)
http://www.homedepot.com/p/HDX-100-ft-16-3-Extension-Cord-HD-277-525/100650619

quality costs a bit more (much better but much more expensive 10 gauge)
but then
how much is not having a shop fire going to save you?

http://www.homedepot.com/p/100-ft-1...rd-with-Lighted-Plug-757-103100RL6A/205377761

http://www.harborfreight.com/50-ft-x-10-gauge-triple-tap-extension-cord-62916.html

http://www.ebay.com/itm/like/111240596024?lpid=82&chn=ps&ul_noapp=true

https://www.lowes.com/pd/Utilitech-...0-Gauge-Yellow-Outdoor-Extension-Cord/3191731

most guys find a short three outlet cord also handy
https://www.amazon.com/Power-First-4GAD3-Extension-3-Outlet/dp/B004KF54VG

http://www.homedepot.com/p/2-ft-12-...ERCH=REC-_-rv_nav_plp_rr-_-NA-_-100661445-_-N

https://www.walmart.com/ip/100-Ft-G...trategy=SMT&visitor_id=DodpwWimoCL-nWMDOv7yPE


https://www.firerecruit.com/articles/1206100-5-common-causes-of-electrical-fires

http://www.esfi.org/resource/reachi...properly-542?gclid=CNCVq7X52NECFc-Eswodm1QGiw
 
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Hell, its simple, I wired my whole garage, running a plug for a welder is easy. There two hot sides and one ground and the fourth is the earth ground and your off and running. Mine worked out great, took all of 15 minutes.
 
I make my own long cords with # 10 wire and a 4x4 box and 4 outlets in each one they are more expensive to do but sometimes on a job there is only one or two outlets to use and lots of tools to use in them. I buy what is called S/O cord it will take a beating on jobs I know my long 50ft. one is over 20 years old and never had a problem with it. In that 20 year time I don't even want to guess how many 50 & 100 ft. cords that I have had to replace because they have worn out. In this case you truly get what you pay for.
 
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