Welding Tips and Tricks

I recently put a 220 dryer plug on my AC stick welder and it keeps tripping the breaker. The dryer receptical is a 3 prong with 2 hot and a neutral. The welder is 2 hot and a ground. When hooking up the dryer plug, I hooked ground to neutral thinking that it was basically the same thing (stupid I know). Are they compatible or is that why my breaker is tripping?

If it is, can I just cap the neutral on the plug and connect my welders ground to the frame?

Don't do it.
Why does your dryer plug have a neutral instead of an earth?

I've seen it happen before like that if the whole area is fed by 3 phz. I'm with Coldman! You need an electrician with a meter.

Where I live (Usa, ky) 3 prong 220 recepticals with 2 hot and a neutral are very common. I appreciate the concern but, TBH, I will most likely try capping the neutral and grounding the welder to it's frame. I can't imagine why there would be a problem with that. Anybody else agree or disagree?

That won't be a true earth and probably not protected by your rcd if you have one in circuit.

I could wire it on a metal stake and stab it in the ground.

You could but it still won't be a guaranteed true earth until tested. It's your life....

Neutral and ground are not interchangeable. They are connected to each other in the main panel only. I tell people "Your mouth and your anus share a common connection but they serve different purposes and are not interchangeable "

Is connecting it's ground to neutral what's causing the breaker to trip then? Could one cap the neutral and ground to the ground? I would be sure not to touch the welder (while plugged in) without my gloves on.

We best wait for Otto on this one. He is up to speed on US power circuitry and regulations.

Your welder needs a grounding conductor. Your dryer also needs a grounding conductor. Your dryer also needs a neutral, or more accurate center tap conductor, (white). At an earlier time, dryers originating from service equipment where grounded neutral, and grounding bare are bonded together were allowed to have a single conductor to serve both functions. Because problems ensued, new installations need four conductors.

PUTTING A WELDER ON ITS OWN CIRCUIT IS BEST!

The math is different for welders. Be more specific about nameplate info., sub panel, or service panel, distances, and breaker sizes.

Willie

Years ago NAEC called for a single conductor supplying your range, or dryer from SERVICE EQUIPMENT. Service equipment is defined as the enclosure containing the service disconnect. The logic was that in the service equipment center tap (neutral) is bonded to equipment ground. This practice was never allowed if your range, or dryer circuit originated at a sub panel, or panel other than the one containing the service disconnect. This caused problems with installers not understanding the importance of separating grounding from grounded. It is critically important that ranges, and dryers have both neutral, and ground.

A state away from me a plumber was killed recently. A delivery person for an appliance dealer had installed a range in an older home with three wire receptacle. In installing the three wire cord, he discarded the clamp supplied with the cord. This clamp is poorly designed. I opt to replace it with a better one. The frame was not bonded to neutral either. The sharp sheet metal hole cut into the insulation, energizing the range. Like a bird on a wire, the homeowner was unaware the range had been electrically charged for some time. The plumber was first to touch both a water line, and the range. It cost him his life.

Please don't screw with hooking a welder to a dryer circuit. The math is different, the installation violates numerous code articles. Have an electrician install a welder outlet

Bill

I going to try to simply this down to very easy to understand concept for laymen. You have 3 wires coming into your home. If you have a overhead service look up and you will see 2 insulated lines an a bare wire wire carrying the other two. These are 2 120 Volt AC single phase lines with a the Neutral. They all carry power. Ground is provided for safety for a couple of good reasons. It protects our equipment and us by giving electrical voltage a place to flow to causing the electrical breaker to open and shunt it into earth to keep us from receiving a fatal shock. Our older welder's that use 220 Volts are wired 120+120=220 and most importance a ground. No Neural. The new multi voltage units uses the magic of solid state to use both voltages. I can't stress the importance unless you are well vs in electrical wiring bring in a Electrician to wire your shop to protect your investment and most importance you and other that could come into contact with your equipment.

Breakers are sized and intended only to protect the wire. Thay do not respond fast enough to be for people protection. That's why people get electrocuted every year.

That was true maybe very early on as they would require a large arc force to fault but today the new types open in less than 12 cycles or 1/5 sec preventing a fatal shock. GFI are even faster as they open at 5 mill amps of current. Electrical power is very dangerous given the right conditions as fatal shock can happen as low as 70 mill amps. Grounding is still very importance as electrical power will always try to take the fastest path to ground. The scope of this subject can get real deep real fast and my main point is if don't understand electrical wiring call a Pro. to do it. The old adages better to be safe than sorry could't be more true when working with electrical power.

NEMA 15 series connections were abandoned because of the ground-neutral sharing. Often times, a range or dryer needed 120 volts so the ground then became an intentional current carrying conductor. That the current was usually under an amp matters not.

That being said, I still use them but only in the line-line-ground config. Never for anything needing 120 volts. For example, my water heater. And single phase connection on my Dynasty when I cannot use my 3 phase generators. The Dynasty has a 277/480 volt three phase 4 conductor with ground Twist lock plug. I have extension cords with multiple plugs on the other end.

Because the Dynasty is an inverter, there is no need for a neutral. The power cord is 12 gauge 3C with ground. While that implies delta, I run it on wye (at 208 volts) without issue since all three lines feed directly into the bridge rectifier and the unit runs on DC, internally.

Ditto. I have a Miller 380 CST that I often use on various voltages. I keep a 4 prong 50 amp plug on the machine and pig tail to any other kinda plug.