[vorgath]

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

[vorgath]

I don't want to blow my welder .. ok

[jerrylo]

What does the wiring schematic say? Is there notes on l1, l2, etc. I did not know that they made a 110/220 volt welder. If you had a picture of the schematic it would help.

[cboy]

Originally posted by vorgath
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.

[vorgath]

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

[vorgath]

*lol* light blue wire ... yellowish wire ... and a green/yellow wire (with the metal end on it)

[cboy]

Yikes, I'd hate to even make any suggestions based on what little that manual says and how little it seems to correspond to normal wiring of 110 or 220.

Hopefully someone else has some experience on one of these welders and can give some direction.

[vorgath]

The welder has a switch on it, for selecting 110 or 220 volt .. with a safety screw blocking it so one can't select 220 by accident when one wants to use 110 volt.

here's a link to it

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...sPageName=WDVW

[jerrylo]

Could you take the cover off where the wiring needs installed and take a picture?

[oldred]

250 amps from a 110 outlet?? I think I would be VERY concerned about current draw here as breaker size and wiring size would have to be enormous or at least that is the way it seems to me. Any electricians out there?

[vorgath]

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

[vorgath]

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

[cboy]

Do you have two browns (live conductor wires)?

[vorgath]

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 ??

[vorgath]

And now I blew the fuse in the garage .. so the garage door won't work.. no lights.. nothing...

glad i don't have a running vehicle in the garage

roflmao