Power supply troubleshooting help

[FredH]

Basically What I mean is something Like this Plug or similar that your welder would plug into :



Home Depot , Lowes , etc.......

Appropriate size cord , similar to what is on your welder . One end of is left bare with wires out while other is fed into recepticle and wired up . If welder is 3 prong , then get 3 prong box . Just remember Which wires you use on the 2 side blades and the wire for the ground . Thus the 2 wires you have in box on the side blades go into the breaker and the single wire at top is for ground .
Say Black on one side , White on other side and the Green at the top . Colors may vary , Just keep them the same in box and on breaker .

At the least , it should isolate what section of your grid is the problem . May not diagnose the issue , but may narrow it down to were .

Fred H.

 

[vwnotrunning]

Maybe just try your welder at your friends house! That should rule out electrical issues.

 

[Big Barn]

Maybe just try your welder at your friends house! That should rule out electrical issues.

I like that idea.

Terry

 

[CNC Dan]

Maybe just try your welder at your friends house! That should rule out electrical issues.

Look at the OP's first post.

He kind of did that by bringing his frends welder to his place, and it experienced the same problem. And the problem went away when his friend brought the welder back to his own place.

 

[James Eric]

It's hard to tell from the pictures, but in the picture of the disconnect box it looks like some of the #4 Cu strands have been trimmed to fit in the lug. However, the two main facts we are missing when troubleshooting barn power are: (1) How far from the house service entrance to the welder in total wire footage? (2) What is the #12 romex powering in picture #1? Must be something at the house obviously, but what? Air conditioner? Refrigerator?

All of the pictures show very sloppy work that would fail inspection here, BTW.

The distance from the box to the barn is 160 feet. The #12 is only used to power a powerline adapter so that I can internet service in the barn. The voltage drops from 121 to 112 (sometimes 108) when I start my compressor. I tested both legs. It returns to 121 in a fraction of a second. That was the only way I could test it without help. I am assuming that the welders DC motor would draw as much as the compressor at startup.

 

[Fawken]

As suggested, have you tried operating the welder at the house? Another thing is to safely isolate the buried feeder wiring and use an ohmmeter on the Rx1000 scale to see if there is leakage to ground. All of my shop and barn wiring is outdoor rated and in conduit but even so I perform this test about once every couple of years. Conduit no matter how well it is sealed will be full of water in a year or so and you have no idea if there is a splice or nick in the underground wiring. If so the ohmmeter will show it. As I said turn the breakers off at both ends of the line and read the hot legs relative to ground.

 

[Illini22]

Where does it drop voltage? At the outlet, then test at the barns panel when starting the compressor. If it drops at the panel, keep working up stream. If the other legs voltage raises then you have a neutral problem.

 

[Jimbrown]

Well I had that problem. Going one size up on the gun nipple fixed it. I think I went fro .035 to .040. even though I was using .035 wire.

 

[pat32rf]

Don't know about Texas but as a retired serviceman of 25 years, I would much rather have a little extra wire in a box than wire that is straight with sharp square corners. When you have to make changes due to updates or bad connections that extra wire is GOLD....
When I look at the panel, I don't see any sign of discolouration from loose connections under load. Might be something at the OTHER end of the wire though...

 

[James Eric]

This week I checked all of the connections and made them tighter. I am now getting 237-238v steady with the welder running at maximum power. It must have been a loose connection somewhere. Thanks for all of the input. It really helped.

James