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Welder Extension cord

boz42

boz42

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I just acquired a Miller mig. It draws 31 amps max. I have no more room in my breaker box & I need to use this thing tommorrow. I want to plug it into the 50amp plug in for my laundry dryer with an extension cord. I realize this is not ideal, but I am in a hurry cause we are going on a ride next weekend & I have a few repairs that need to be made.

I do have 100 foot of 12/3 s.o. rubber cord. What is the max length I can use & still be safe. I really would like to have about 50 foot, but if it is a fire hazard I will not do it.

Thanks to the elections out there in advance.
 
we used a heavy gauge cable to run 220 from the drier in the farmhouse out to our welder and air compressor down at the farm. Since then we have upgraded the shops wiring to accommodate 220. If you have a big enough gauge i see no problem, but im not sure if yours is adequate, someone else should chime in. I think ours was 50 or 60 feet in length.
 
12 is only good to 23 amps... 10'll get ya to 33... in an emergency you could give it a shot, but i would pay close attention to how warm the wire gets at the plugs...

i run a 25' cord for my MM 180, it's 6/3......
 
ryoken said:
12 is only good to 23 amps... 10'll get ya to 33... in an emergency you could give it a shot, but i would pay close attention to how warm the wire gets at the plugs...

i run a 25' cord for my MM 180, it's 6/3......
Click to expand...

agree 100%. you start getting north of 20 amps and you can melt 12/3.

i'm running 6/3 for the same length extension cord. if you make your own extension cord, make sure you get the flexible rubber kind. it's much easier to handle.
 
Sounds like you need to find a buddy who had their dryer in the garage.....
 
Well, that is what I was afraid of. Looks like I will just have to wire another recaptacle in the garage.

The welder has a 12/3 pigtail on it now. It is only 10 feet long. How much does the length of the pigtail play into what gauge it needs to be to support a given amount of amps.

Maybe I misread the amp draw. I am gonna go look again.
 
As has been said, I would run it with the cord that you have but be careful.

I would guess that you aren't going to be welding continuesly for hours on end. You will have plenty of cooling time between welds.

Something tells me to make sure you are actually needing 220 volts. I am not familiar with your miller model but some are dual voltage so check that too please.
 
I made my own cord but I never paid attention to the size. I bought the plug ends and the cable is about as thick as my arm so no problems so far. I just wanted to be able to get my welder to the side yard of my house. Let us know how it goes.
 
Desert Rat said:
I made my own cord but I never paid attention to the size. I bought the plug ends and the cable is about as thick as my arm so no problems so far. I just wanted to be able to get my welder to the side yard of my house. Let us know how it goes.
Click to expand...


As long as you don't have "girly-man" arms, you should be good to go :thumb::haha:
 
I bought 50 foot of 8/3 s.o. rubber cord today. This way I don't have to worry about it. Thanks guys.
 
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i got a 4/3 cable for mine about 60ft, scored it at a yard sale for 10 bucks many years ago.
 
If the cord on the welder isn't very beefy, you might as well replace it. My cheap 220V welder came with about 4' of cord and it was small. I opened the welder and replaced that cord with about 25' of 8 gauge. Getting rid of one plug/socket might save you as much voltage drop as moving up a gauge size on the cord.
 
Here's a pic of mine. 20' long, not sure what gauge.

picture.php
 
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