Welding Tips and Tricks

Hey I am needing a new electrical outlet installed in my garage. I was needing another 230v line run thru the house but can NOT find the amperage input at max load on my miller Maxstar 200 dx!!! I'm gonna need to know so I can get the right wiring without overkill and over paying! The electrician told me it was probably 50 amps! I don't think it's that high! I mean that kinda wire is gonna hurt me when the bill comes. I'm hoping it's closer to half that. Anyone have experience with wiring and one of these machines???

If it's single-phase, I'd go with the 50A. It gives you room to grow a bit, as well.

Honestly, I don't think you'll throw a breaker at 30A on that machine, but I'd weigh the cost of replacing it later if you "buy up".

In other words, buy it once.

Steve S

Go with the 50. You're only going to pay for what you draw, powerwise. Even at an hourly draw of a constant 35 amps at 220 volts, which you'll never run at peak for that long continuously, that would be 7.7 kilowatts. If your kilowatt price per hour is 15cents, that's only $1.15 per hour to run your welder at peak.

Other Steve

Adam's Got Skills wrote:Hey I am needing a new electrical outlet installed in my garage. I was needing another 230v line run thru the house but can NOT find the amperage input at max load on my miller Maxstar 200 dx!!! I'm gonna need to know so I can get the right wiring without overkill and over paying! The electrician told me it was probably 50 amps! I don't think it's that high! I mean that kinda wire is gonna hurt me when the bill comes. I'm hoping it's closer to half that. Anyone have experience with wiring and one of these machines???

Get a 50 amp breaker wired in, with a Nema 6-50r outlet....

Most versatile for what you do, and will be doing...

The Miller site...
http://www.millerwelds.com/service/owne ... .php?model
... lists 33 different Maxstar models. The manuals should have an "input requirements" section and will give you a starting point for when the electrician arrives. But the other responses about installing a 50 amp circuit are very practical: do it once and be done, cover all (or most) of your future requirements.

I've run my Dynasty 200DX @200A TIG on a 230V/20A breaker with no problem. The Maxstar 200DX is the same without AC

I mean I'd like to have a 3 phase outlet but idk what it takes as far as a new breaker box? Is that a better way to go? A 3phase 460v or just go with a single ph 230v?? What's funny is the website doesn't show the input power at max for the maxstar on the website...which I find weird. I only have room for 2 small breakers/1 bigger breaker in the box, but thought about running another box right in the garage so if I need to flip the breaker it's right there...Any thoughts? I'm just gonna be doing practice/building projects/small projects for friends (to make a few bucks while I'm in school)

You are not going to be able to get 3-phase in a residential service.

Wiring info from the manual.
I would think this is all an electrician needs to know.

Adam's Got Skills wrote:I only have room for 2 small breakers/1 bigger breaker in the box, but thought about running another box right in the garage so if I need to flip the breaker it's right there...Any thoughts? I'm just gonna be doing practice/building projects/small projects for friends (to make a few bucks while I'm in school)

Depending on your budget...

It looks like your welder will run off a 30A circuit, so you could just have that installed. But it depends on what else you might do in the future.

A larger circuit (50A or oven 60A) would be more future-proof - it'll handle just about anything you're likely to run at home including a large welder, a plasma cutter, etc. but, you can't usually have multiple outlets on a 240v circuit, so you'll end up swapping plugs, if the tools are all even in the same area. At these levels, the materials do get more expensive, but if you're already paying a lot for the labor, the added cost might be marginally more.

Or... you could run a large circuit to a sub-panel in the garage. Then multiple branch circuits of the same size or smaller can be more economically installed. As long as their total consumption remains less than the feed circuit, you're good. (e.g., you could have multiple large branch circuits because you're not likely to use two welders, or a welder and plasma cutter at the same time.)

Cheers,
Richard

you can run three phase in residential with a phase converter

phase converter example

http://www.zoro.com/i/G0986377/?utm_sou ... 7AoddEcAqw

You can but it cut's your output power almost in half, i.e. 30 amps input to around 15.5 amps output. Not real efficient.

Len

You should never use a static converter on anything with electronics in it. A rotary converter is better and an electronic converter is best, although both are significantly more expensive.

A static converter will also cut a machines rated horsepower in half, rotary converters will run them close to rated.

I was considering buy an AlumaPro 3 phase machine and wrote Miller if they thought I could run it off of a rotary converter. They did not recommend running it off of any type of converter.

Other Steve

ou can but it cut's your output power almost in half, i.e. 30 amps input to around 15.5 amps output. Not real efficient.

Len
len,
does that apply to machinery as well.
i run my mill with this system and it
doesn't seem to have any effect on its
performance?
craig

Motox,
If the amp draw is less than the output of the converter then there will be no loss in performance of what ever is running off of it. I was just speaking to the efficency of them. As long as the converters output is higher than it's demand, your mill should operate to it's capacity.

Len

Just to add confusion for those not really " into " AC power you need to know that the early type static phase converters produce a very bad wave form closer to a square wave than a sine due to how they work - in laymans terms the output has a lower peak voltage but a greater % " on time " ie the time passing through zero volts is less - I could attempt to elaborate on this but it's difficult to explain simply - bottom line is that a motor will run on them but will create less power & more heat than when running on true 3phase & is often noisy - they are an option used generally for smallish motors such as the previously mentioned milling machine - often all machines in a shop are 3phase as it's slightly cheaper when buying them new & keeps an even loading on the incoming mains which the power companies prefer - if you buy one second hand for home use then an inverter is simpler & often cheaper than swapping out the wiring / switch gear & motor on the machine - while the inverters are not that efficient the total load is not that bad - if you look round though the price of digital true sine wave converters is dropping & I have fitted a few for people on motors recently & have been very impressed - also with most of them you get the option at setup to enable soft start if wanted along with variable frequency giving a wide speed range when used on a lathe etc & the option for electric braking - inverters in general though should not be used to power electronic devices & welders especially are not suitable - but even if one could the usual reason for having 3phase machines is they draw far too many amps to run on single phase - even if you can convert power to 3phase the total absorbed power will be the same - if your supply is too small on single phase it needs uprating.

like i have said before
very knowledgeable members
here.