"Ground" Lead Questions

admin

Ok so here's my question, after working in my garage over the past year or so I have decided to redesign and rebuild a cart to better suit my needs and make my life a little easier. After some long thought on the matter and a lot of searching I cannot find the answer I am looking for. Maybe I'm not asking the right question so I'm gonna throw it out there and see who bites. So I am going to be putting together a new cart to hold my MM185 and a Maxstar 150STL, and  a Spoolmate 3035, Tanks, and all the gear that goes along with that. So I have been thinking I would like to minimize the number of cables that I have laying around and I am wondering if I can create a ground bar that I can run both machines to and then have that ground bar attached to a spooled up single ground clamp rather than having two? No assuming I am only running one machine at a time there should be no problem. I understand that if both machines were used at once that could be detrimental to both machines. So am I out of my mind for wanting to do this? I'm open to any thoughts on the matter, weather I'm absolutely off base or onto an idea that will make my life slightly easier?Thanks
Reply:Connecting the work leads together will not be detrimental to your machines, although if you did use both at once the weld quality might be affected by voltage fluctuations. If you are one guy working in your garage that won't be an issue, unless you are a "two-fisted welder". I routinely have MIG, TIG, and plasma grounds all connected to the same table and never have any problem, even when using HF start.JohnA few weldersA lot of hammersA whole lot of C-clamps
Reply:I think it would be better to simply have a work lead tail on each machine using a Dinse connector.  From your primary spooled work lead (ground) you could disconnect from one tail and connect to the other.  I am not a fan of common grounds between machines.  I was in a building where all the machines were connected to the structural steel of the building.  The work leads came from the steel columns.  I have had a DC machine and an AC transformer machine connected to a large frame when one of the ground leads fell off.  We didn't notice it and there were some pretty wierd symptoms.
Reply:Been there, tried it, not worth it. Makes moving your machines around or going mobile a pain. I am also not a big fan of racking all your machines together. It makes moving them around for bigger projects difficult. I will sometimes have a welder on either side of a project, TIG on the workbench and plasma connected somewhere else convenient. Everything is on wheels and is easy to move. I wouldn't consider doing that unless you only welds small items on a bench and that is all you ever plan on doing.