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Stick welder - power supply

4K views 30 replies 5 participants last post by  vorgath 
#1 ·
Got myself a 110/220 volt 250 Amp stick welder, comes with a few things, but one needs to setup the power.

My question is this ... how ??

I think for now I'll just use 110 volt, do I just buy the plug and run the two copper wires and the third wire to it .. and plug it all into the wall ??

In the manual it says something about hooking it up to a power distributor etc etc

Money's real short now ... so...

Folks, I knew how to rig power outlets, extension cords, lamps etc when I was using 220 volt back in Europe .. but I've never dealt with our domestic power setup here in the States, especially not involving surge protector etc etc
 
#4 ·
vorgath said:
do I just buy the plug and run the two copper wires and the third wire to it .. and plug it all into the wall ??

In the manual it says something about hooking it up to a power distributor etc etc
I'm not familiar with your specific welder but I would think there are four wires involved...a red "hot", a black "hot", a white neutral and an uninsulated ground. Wiring for 110 would include the black, white, and uninsulated ground and wiring for 220 would involved all 4 wires. So you definitely don't want to wire both the red and the black wires into a 110 plug. I would think the unit should have some very specific wiring diagrams to keep you from making your hair stand on end.
 
#5 · (Edited)
uhmmmmm

The user manual is really tiny .. lol .. it pretty much mentions hooking it all up to a power distributor ... and also to get a ground wire that's at least 14 mm thick ... and now that is THICK

I'll look at the manual again.. and type in here what it says

1. Ground
a. There is a ground terminal under the shell board. Please ground with wire over 14mm.
b. Please arrange the expert or electrician to ground.


2. Power connection
((for my model, it says size of output cable.. twice .. but different size lol.. plus air switch current of 75A))
Each welder need to be equipped with a distributor box with switch and over-current protection device. Please lead the power from the distributor box to input terminal of welder by cable. The capacity of distributor box and cross-sectional area of cable refer to below table.
((which would be what I already posted above, how big the cable is .. *shrugs*))


And that's exactly what it says in the tiny manual
 
#11 ·
no no

It's not 250 Amp from a 110 volt outlet ... that is when you use 220 volt ... when using 110 volt one will get hmmm i don't know ... 100-110 probably

Yeah I'll try to get some pics taken if I can find the camera around here
 
#12 ·
AHA !!

Did a search on Altavista ... took a while to find it.. but here it is ... like I suspected, the welder works on 110 or 220 volt, depending on what you set the selector switch on, however .... the wires are color coded the European way:

European colors

* The live conductor must be brown
* The neutral is blue
* The earth ('safety ground') must be green/yellow


So basically ... brown-hot .. blue-neutral .. green/yellow-ground
 
#14 ·
Hooked up and .. running .. uhmm almost

OK, got myself a plug .. hooked up all wires to it ... used an extension cord with a surge protector and switch as a "power distributor with surge protector and switch".

The 14mm wire must be meant as 14 gauge wire ... since 14 mm is just huge.

Anyway ... I get a spark when I touch the object I want to weld, i.e. the object to which the working object ground cable is hooked up to.

BUT ... the stick gets stuck to the metal .. and when I keep it there for 2 seconds ... the power surge protector kicks in.. and shuts down the welder.


So .. obviously I must be doing something wrong ... ideas ??
 
#16 ·
A) When you tried to run the welder, was it set at 110 or 220?

B) If you used the 220 setting, did you have 220 wiring to the welder plug...did you have a red wire, a black wire, a white wire and an uninsulated wire to the plug?

C) If you were trying to run at 220 are you coming off a 220 breaker in your box (basically just two normal breakers hooked in tandem)? What is the amperage of the 220 breaker and what size wiring are you using to your plug? Also, how much amperage do you have running into your main fuse box and what is the rating on the main fuse (breaker)?

D) If you were trying 220, does the plug wire coming out of your welder and going into the plug have 4 wires (one wire to the blue neutral on our welder, one to the green/yellow ground, and two live conductors connected to two brown wires in you welder?

E) If you had the welder set at 110 for your fatal test run, what size breaker are you running from in your fuse box and what size wire do you have from your fuse box to the plug?

F) If you were set at 110, how were you wired from your welder to your plug?

Again, pics would help - and a detailed description of how your breaker box and your wiring is set up (sizes etc.).
 
#18 ·
Are you using one of those surge protector extension cords like they plug computer stuff into? My guess is that has a pretty low resistance breaker and will pop pretty quickly. I'd try plugging the welder directly into the wall socket...providing you have the proper breaker in your fuse box for the wiring to the socket. Or is that what you did when you blew out all the lights?
 
#19 ·
Yes and no

I tried it first with the extension cord ... it shut down all the time.. as soon as I got the metal stick to get stuck on the metal (due to no arc) .. it blew

I got used to resetting it

Then I tried getting away from getting the stick stuck .. so I decided to do the "scratching" .. sliding sideways thingy with the stick against the metal... in order to get the arc going ... last time i did it .. that's when the lights went down ..
 
#20 ·
vorgarh-What size rod are you using? What power setting?
I looked at the description that you posted and the rod size limit is only 3/32" which is quite small but about the limit for a 110 volt machine, anything bigger will pop a breaker almost instantly and at the power setting required to burn even a rod that size the machine will have a very short duty cycle. That rod size limit also confirms what I already suspected that the 65 to 250 amp claim is wildly exaggerated with 30 to 90 amps being closer to reality with a short duty cycle on 110 volt but somewhat better on 220 volts. I assume that this machine is also AC only which will make it a bit harder to weld with but used within limitations it should work just fine. The proper type electrode(rod) is very important as some types are extremely difficult to use with AC so I would suggest a 1/16" E7014 or 1/16" E6013 for ease of use, the E7014 being the best in my opinion.
 
#21 ·
hmmmmm

It is actually labelled .. in the manual.. and on the welder .. as a 225 Amp welder ...

hmmmm I have to check what rods I did get ... I'm rather sure I already got the 1/16 6013 ... but I'll double check that one.. and post about it here

Thanks !!
 
#24 ·
Yes .. but

BUT ... would an Arc welder have a ground wire going from underneath it ... to ground somewhere ??

When I already have the work piece (metal to weld) grounded from the welder ... plus the plug is a three wire (green/yellow is ground)
 
#25 ·
cboy,
standard house current in most of Europe is 220 volts so everything like lightbulbs and coffee pots are 220 volts. In the US, residential wiring is basically 110. There are 3 wires comming into an average US house. The two black wires are both 110 measured to the neutral and 220 volts measured between themselves. All the normal outlets are connected between one of the blacks and neutral. For hi-power appliances, they connect across both blacks.
The European eqivalent is just 2 wires comming in - 220 and neutral. (I'm ignoring any grounds for this discussion) so every outlet is 220.
There are good arguements for both systems but the key is they are different. The standard color codes are different and the ones described for this welder are not the US standard.
If you have ever wondered why most computers have a switch on the back for 110 or 220, it is because they are used all over the world and have to cope with the different power setups.
 
#26 ·
But

but I should still be able to wire it the normal way ... right ?

However I will try smaller rods .. and if that doesn't help ... hmmm check the breaker in the fuze box inside the house

BTW, the breaker runs the garage, fans in the kitchen, fan in the laundry room, and also light in the laundry room
 
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