Largest welder for #10 wire

[grsthegreat]

IS that at the MAX (225A setting)????

well thats what the slide handle says. Ive never had it anywheres near that setting though. I rarely weld greater than 3/4" stock, and usually 1/4" is the majority of my welding work.

I run almost exclusivly 7018 rod and run d/c reverse polarity

 

[yomax4]

I only know of a few 115v Stick Welders that will burn in enough to hold a Wedge. All have Power Factor and put out true 100 Amps on 115v. If you have to use what you have, Pre Heat to 500 degrees. Buy a temp stick if you dod not have Acetylene. Heat til it melts and put in a multitude of passes with 3/32 7018. If you do have acetylene, Turn on Acetylene only and Smoke the area you want to weld. Then turn on the Oxygen and start to heat the smoked area. Do it slowly. When the Smoke color starts to go away, You are at 500 degrees. Let her rip with multiple passes and don't spare the Rods.

 

[rankrank1]

You can power a Lincoln AC 225 (DC125), Miller Thunderbolt 225 (DC150), or a Hobart Stickmate 225 (DC160) off of #10 wire easily.

Lincoln manual even states #10 wire is suitable up to 95' feet from panel with a 50 amp breaker. NEC code even allows oversizing the breaker on the undersize wire since welders like these since are low duty cycle - in other words they are NOT continuous loads as these welders only have a 20% duty cycle in any setting where more than 30 amps will be drawn. However special steps must be taken with an oversized breaker on the unsized wire as ONLY the welder can be plugged into that circuit and it must be clearly marked accordingly. Older Miller manuals even allow 12 gauge wire on shorter runs with the 50 amp breaker. That said, I would not use #12, but #10 has worked fine for me for years at 100' of length. Used buzzboxes like these can be picked up for bargain prices and last forever as ther is so little to go wrong with them. AC only buzzbox anywhere from $100-$150 used. DC capable then $250 or so used.

Another option is some of the inverter welders which do have slightly lower power requirements, but they can be pricey for good name brand ones and the cheap ones have less than stellar reliability thus far so it could be a crapshoot.

Lincoln, Miller, and Hobart manuals are available for download for free even for older models. I would strongly recommend you check the manuals to verify what I am saying. NEC code books will tell you the permissble exceptions permitted for welders based on duty cycle in regards to oversizing a breaker on undersize wire.

 

[grsthegreat]

I only know of a few 115v Stick Welders that will burn in enough to hold a Wedge. All have Power Factor and put out true 100 Amps on 115v. If you have to use what you have, Pre Heat to 500 degrees. Buy a temp stick if you dod not have Acetylene. Heat til it melts and put in a multitude of passes with 3/32 7018. If you do have acetylene, Turn on Acetylene only and Smoke the area you want to weld. Then turn on the Oxygen and start to heat the smoked area. Do it slowly. When the Smoke color starts to go away, You are at 500 degrees. Let her rip with multiple passes and don't spare the Rods.

why 120 volt...go with 240 volt stick welder.

 

[yomax4]

why 120 volt...go with 240 volt stick welder.

Definatly go 230 volt if possible. Im sorry, Thought the original poster only had 115v.

 

[crazyal]

Do you have an outlet you'll be plugging into or are you going to wire this directly into your breaker panel? If wired are you planning on rolling the wire out like an extension cord? If it was me I would wire up an outlet correctly for a 50 amp circuit. Then I would put a plug on the 10 gauge wire and use it like an extension cord. I would also get the size welder I thought I would want, not one that will only draw 30 amps.

I ran my Lincoln 255 MIG off a 30 amp breaker for years without ever tripping it no matter how high I turned the power up.

 

[ultrarunner]

When I was welding up my trailer with my 230 volt AC arc welder... I did manage to trip the 50 amp breaker with lots of welding...

One of these days a nice Mig Welder is on my wish list... for awhile, I had access to all the fabrication equipment I could use at the tool and die shop where I worked... shop been gone for years...

 

[arrow]

I know you probably want to do it yourself and are probably going to buy a welder anyway but if this is the biggest welding job you are ever going to do then it might be prudent to hire it out and concentrate on dealing with what you would most likely be doing in the future. A splitter wedge isn't something that I would want to have "not quite enough" weld on.

Actually I am trying to build the entire splitter. I used this part of the splitter as an example because whatever could weld the wedge onto the beam, would certainly weld the rest of the splitter. I did not want to mess with a mig as there are too many complexities such as gas needed, rust free, burning tips etc. Migs just don't fit my personality even though everyone I know says to get one. This would be a dedicated circuit coming off the box in the garage. I have never welded anything thick over 1/4" so I wanted to know if there was sufficient heat available to weld thicker metal with a 30 amp input. Would a 160 amp inverter stick welder be capable of this or do I need higher temps?

 

[arrow]

Best bet would be to look @ the specs on the welders you are looking at. I think they list the reccomended breaker size? but I could be wrong.

My problem here is that I do not know enough about what is proper. For instance, can I use a 50 amp breaker on #10 wire? Someone here did but I would never had guessed it as appropriate with all the warnings I've heard about undersizing wiring with a larger breaker. The irony here is that I've been around welders my entire life. Its just that I never was the one fixing something on a skidder or excavator so I never paid much attention. Plus, these were massive welders on a truck driven by also large generators. That is why I needed someone with experience to say "get this and you'll be ok to do what you want" For the welding I have done and for the welders I've used. I am not a fan of ac welding. 7014 rod makes ac a lot easier for me but even a friends 220 volt Hobart stick with 6011's still stuck rods. Never welded with dc hence my query on inverters and hearing their loads are easier, thought they would fit the bill. As I said, don't know enough even going thru all the old posts in the welder section.

 

[Gary Fowler]

Contact Mark @ Everlast for info on inverter welders. He sell a Chinese made machine that he swears by for quality.

Inverter machines are small and lightweight, draw minimal current but I CAN attest to their lack of durability. We had a contractor use them exclusively in a pipe fabrication shop (about 25 machines) in Nigeria doing TIG welding on 2" and below piping and they worked well as far as quality of welding. He also used them to test welders using 3/32" 7018 and powered them off a 110 volt circuit from a Lincoln diesel welding machine. He could run 2 machines on the same plug so they didnt draw a lot of amperage. They also didnt last very long in the fab shop environment. In the 16 months that his contract ran, he burned up several of the inverter machines and these were only running about 65 amps BUT they were in use for 10 hours per day 7 days a week so that was a lot of hours compared to a home owner usage. These were all Lincoln brand high dollar industrial grade machines and they still didnt last very long. I would expect a transformer type machine to run for years and years in this type of work without any problems so, I will stick to the statement that they arent as durable as a regular welding machine.
The convenience is that you can run them on a #12 wire extension cord for 100 feet and a small child can carry the machine with welding leads.