max input wire length for ac 225
Tue, 31 Aug 2021 10:20:51 GMT
i have recently aquired an ac-225. old and beaten, i have painted, cleaned and replaced most everything, all except the input wire. the stock size is 12/3 @ approx 5 feet. i have a fresh roll of wire (10/3 soo) 600v with the same heat resistance rating. i am renting the home i stay in and do not have the option to move the current socket. also, the current location is near my woodworking tools and the risk of fire is a factor. i think that it would be better to increase the length of the electode cables but i'm just about out of cash for this project so this is why i need a longer input wire. the rating for this machine is 20% @ 40-225a w/ continuous at 75a. i am open to all recommendations! any help will be appreciated. thanks
Reply:10 gauge wire is only rated for 30amps where as the machine is capable of drawing more. Lincoln puts 50amp rated male plugs on its current 225amp stick welders. 8 gauge wire is rated for 40amps and 6 gauge wire is rated for 55amps. Personally, I would not go with anything less than 6-3 wire. Around my area though, it is cheaper to extend the welding leads than the extension of the power cable since the lead cable tends to be less expensive than 6-3 wire of any sort. Good luck.A few of my toys !LinuxMintManjaroMiller Roughneck 2E Lincoln WeldPak 100HTP MTS 160 Chicago Electric 80amp Inverter Victor O/A
Reply:I just did this last week... installed a new input wire and plug to an older (1976) Lincoln tombstone AC-225-S.I chose the 8-3 SOOW for 25 feet. Here's why:First of all, Lincoln themselves wired this thing with 12 guage. They did back 30 years ago, and they do it the same today. In fact, I paid a visit to the tool corral at Home Depot and at Sears/Orchard Supply Hardware, were the 2005 model AC-225-S tombstones are sold, and found the same thing: a skinny, flat 12 guage input wire, with a NEMA 50A-250V 3 prong plug. Nothing was changed in 30 additional years of manufacturing this model, Lincoln's best seller of all time according to the brochure, so I guess Lincoln did not get many complaints or reports about undersized input wire over the last 3 decades.Second of all, in most home/DIY applications, where this power supply is most often used, these little welders are plugged into dryer circuits. Well, dryer circuits are typically wired with only 10 guage from the panel to the plug. Running 6 guage after 10 guage puts the weak link in the walls, not out where one can see it (assuming that for some reason, the breaker fails to trip).Third of all, the white plastic grommet on the back of the AC-225-S that protects the input cable jacket from the sharp edges of the back sheet metal panel wouldn't fit a 6-3 SO, SOW, SOOW, SJT, SEW, or SEOW cable. The 8-3 cord was the fattest 3 wire flexible input cord with a 600 volt rating, polar solar insulation class, with abrasion resistent external jacketing that would slide through the Lincoln factory grommet.Fourthly, the 6-3 was nearly double the cost of the 8-3, and twice as hard to work with when making up the plug.So I went 8-3 for 25 feet. I chose 25 feet because most garages are some dimension of 20 to 24 feet, and if I resell the thing, a 25 foot cord would be more useful.Probably 90 percent of the time, the rod that an AC only machine in DIY use will be 1/8" 6011, which burns nicely at 90 amps... less than half the machines current output capacity. It will be rare when the tap is turned above 125, and for those rare days when nothing but the full output called for because one is using discarded rebar for rods, the duty cycle is only 20% anyway.My 350 amp DC welder came with 6-3 cord, and that welding machine has a 100% continuous duty cycle at an amperage of 230, higher than the maximum transient capacity of the AC 225. So I thought 8-3 would handle it. After all, Lincoln thinks 12-3 will handle it.Finally, it didn't seem to make sense for the input cable and plug to be worth twice what the power supply itself is worth as a used piece of equipement. After all, even 30 years ago, they used aluminum wound transformers in the AC-225-S, so it's not like the thing is CU relic to be cherished.I'd say if you already have the 10-3 SOO spool, you can cut up to a 12 foot input cord on it and be safe. Venture much further in length, then consider the 8-3. I paid 40 bucks for the cord, and 14 bucks for the plug. Your price may vary. I typically see 8-3 copper in a good jacket for $1.85/ ft. I think I paid a buck fifty through a wholesaler.If you need to go 75 feet or longer on the input cord, then yes, by all means get the 6-3, drill out the back panel of the machine to put a larger grommet to protect the cord, and buy a seperate dolly to truck around all that input cable with. But then what would a typical home use plug all that cord into? A 10 guage 30 amp 220V circuit originally designed for a dryer?At my place, I wired a dedicated circuit (60 amp breaker) from the service drop meter box main disconnect to a welder's plug a few feet away. This is 6 feet of 4-3 building wire copper, with a bare ground bonding the outlet box to the service panel at the neutral bus, which is bare wired to the two building grounding rods. I welded two extra strengthening brackets to the back side of the welder's plug housing to attach to the wall stud, so yanking cords into and out of the socket wouldn't move the receptical around. My first extension cord is a 48 foot 4-3 SEOW water and oil resistant jacket, and the receptacle on the end of it is a sealed weatherproof enclosure with a flip lid. Into that I would plug my 25 foot 8-3 cord for the AC-225, if I continue to use it. Otherwise, I plug in my 6-3 cord for my DC welder. In otherwords, there is a progression from the meter... from 4, to 6, to 8, with the longest length extension being the fattest cable, in my case, 4.Conventional welding wisdom says the longer cable should be off the secondary, not into the primary... as has already been advised, you really want longer work clamp and electrode holder leads. I forget the rationale behind this, since I would think that the higher voltage primary would have less current drop over long distances for a given size wire. Afterall, that is why long distance power transmission lines are 25,000 to 40,000 volts, which is stepped down by transformer cans mounted on the poles to service the ratepayers at the usable voltages of 110 to 575. But there is some reason why welding power is best transmitted at the lower voltages. Maybe it's safety. I don't remember.Regardless, I can understand why this is not desireable with a tombstone, because you don't want to have to walk 75 feet just to turn the tap to a higher or lower heat between rods and passes. Most professional DC power supplies have the ability to have a remote control box to remotely adjust the output heat while at the weld site. That option is not available on this AC-225 tombstone. Best of luck!Respectfully,Charles Brown
Reply:wow, i have no more questions! thanks for the great info. since i have the 10/3 wire already, i will use that @ 12' until i can get my hands on enough 6/3 to make an extension to use for any other 220v machine that i might use. The reason for saving money is because i want to buy another machine. there lies another question; what is the better way to go? mig or tig. I have not mastered stick welding so i havent really researched the pros and cons of each. it seems mainly a matter of preference by reading some replies on the board. i have used neither so i have no idea yet.
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