Hey Colonel, I hesitated to reply to this thread because their are many other more knowledgable on the subject but I have the Miller 211 and love it. I bought it on line and there was a deal for 10% off entire purchase if a certain dollar amount of accessories was purchased. So I got the spool gun for eventual Aluminum work. I haven't done Al yet but the machine works awesome on 110v and 220v. I took it over to our TBN friend, Shield Arc (missing in action) who is a professional welder and he was very impressed. He had no trouble on 3/4in thick stuff.
I bought a large bottle of 75/25 and the HF welder cart w/drawers to hold everything. Very impressed with the cart too. Watch for a sale and use a 20% coupon. My only issue with my set up in my garage is the length of the power cord, so I will be doing something to extend my range as well. Long ago I found a heavy duty extension cord at Costco and cut the ends off to make it 220v for my air compressor and I use it also for my table saw. One of the smarter things on saving a little money that I have done looking back but copper was much cheaper then. Unfortunately not the right plugs for the welder. Following along to see your solution for the cord.
Thanks Dragon, I'm glad to hear that so many people are happy wtih these welders, I haven't heard but one negative comment, and it regarded a failure of some sort the week after the welder was purchased. Well, this kind of thing does happen.... But I'm guessing the guy, after leaving the comment, was well taken care of.
Like was said, I think there's a sweet spot out there for 10 Gauge RV extension cords. I've got about 150 feet of it in Nevada where I store an RV I use a few weeks a year, and I found it on sale for below $1 a foot and regularly one can buy a "camco" brand 50 footer for about $60 bucks.
I am thinking though, about a Nema 14-50. This plug and receptacle are both 4 conductor. They are widely used for 50A RV service, and so there's two 120V hot legs, a neutral, and a ground. The RV actually uses the power at 120V, and usually two separate "panels" where one AC unit is on one leg, and the 2nd AC on the other leg.
So it's got what you need for how the miller welder's 230V MVP plug is wired (2 120V hots and a ground), but also a neutral wire that would allow some interesting possibilities. Not only could you still use it for 50A RV extension cord, but you could power 230V welder, and also grinder, drill, perhaps even a 120V plasma torch if that's what you happened to have....
How you'd do that, is a power distribution box on the end of the cable, that had both Nema 6-50 for Miller 211, Possibly a Nema 14-50 for the RV (if the need to use it were to arise) and also a duplex receptacle for 120V for a grinder or drill.... Obviously, you would not be operating the welder at full power while running a grinder - we'll go with that assumption.
Now, there are naysayers about the code of all that, etc.... I hear ya, but just because it's not code for a traditional building doesn't mean it can't be safe. What's code in the US might not be code in other countries, etc etc.
I think the biggest issue, folks say, is having potentially twice the current available on the breaker than what a traditional 120V breaker would supply. So, you have a 40A breaker 230V wired to Nema 14-50, and at the end of the cord you tie one of the legs to a 120V receptacle. I read in another thread that you're potentially supplying 40A to your failed grinder (if it failed) - but really, are you? You're only supplying 1 of the hot legs to the duplex, so that's half of 40A, so it's just 20A, and 20A receptacles at 120V are not out of place in a working shop are they?
Another guy on that thread, said that if you mounted a marine-type pushbutton breaker for the 120V duplex you would have code then. Make it a GFCI and you're doubly covered and safe.
So I'm considering this too, trying to figure out if it makes sense. I have build a similar box for my RV in Nevada I was talking about, so I run power to the RV and also have additional 120V power for battery chargers, power tools, lighting, etc.... So I can tell you, that's much better than running 3 different long cords.
