220 Welder running on my Portable Generator?

admin

Hi, I'm new to this forum and have the same question.I own a Lincoln WeldPak 155 using Fluxcore. I am a do it yourselfer and find the need to locate my welder where there is no power (240V)I also have a Porter Cable 5250 Portable Generator that  has one (220-240V) plug.The Recepticle on the Generator is a Twist Lock 20Amp with four terminals.The Plug on the Lincoln is a 50A 3 prong.It seems that the recepticle requires four wires to  run. However, the Lincoln only supports 3.I tried to rig a pigtail adapter that would allow me to make this work but found that the generator would trip a breaker when I plugged in my welder.Can anyone shed light on this problem? Should only use 3 wires? And if so, Which?K.O.
Reply:Make sure that you identify the correct hot wires in the 4 prong receptacle to connect to the 3 wire plug. 2 of the 4 wires will have 240 volts between them when the generator is running if you measure it with an A/C volt meter. One of the other connectors is the neutral and the other one is the ground. If you connect one of the hot wires to the ground wire in the pigtail, that will cause the breaker to trip.If the wire colors are red, black, green and white to the 4-prong receptacle, the red and black wires should be the hot wires.
Reply:Usually, the neutral and the ground are redundant - in the electrical panel they end up connecting to the same thing, so converting to a three wire system should be no problem.  Just get the right plug and wire it in.  (That of course makes no statement about the ability of the generator to produce enough amperage!)A tip for those of you making welding carts and or tables...  If you run a 220 "extension cord" to the cart, you can wire it into a small box and pull off a couple of 110 circuts for the hand tools you use next to the cart.  Just take one "leg" of the 220 circut and the common, plus a ground wire (if you are running the 4 wire system) and you have 110 for an outlet.  (BTW, make sure that you are not running 3 phase!  That is a different animal.)Hey! Bring the camera...Is it still hot?   $%#^%^#  Guess so...
Reply:You can do that to make 120 ciruits,,, provided that the overcurrent protection on this circuit is no more than 20 amps.www.urkafarms.com
Reply:Just a quick note:   Portable 240V generators have a floatinig neutral.  Ground and neutral are NOT bonded in the generator.
Reply:Thanks All for your replys and help. I found the mistake in the wiring with Stingers suggestions. It Works!Now I am able to use as envisioned.Again, Thanks All.K.O.