Trying to Understand Dinse Connector Options ???

[Gordon Gould]

If I have a welder with Dinse-25 female panel connectors for the welding leads can I build or buy a set of compatible extension cables using AWG 2 wire ?? If I look at the Dinse sight it says their -25 connector will handle 25 square mm wire or AWG 4 max so #2 is to big. If I look at other connector manufactures they list the wire sizes the connectors will handle, ie #4 thru 1/0 or 1/0 thru 4/0 but they don't say if the plugs are Dinse -25 or Dinse-50 compatible so it is hard to figure what fits what. So can I use #2 wire in a someone else's connector that will plug into a Dinse-25 connector or do I have to make a set of short cheater cables to go from -25 to -50 in order to use $2 wire ???
Thanks - hopefully you can understand what I said.

gg

 

[RNeumann]

I’d call one of the online welding supply shops that sells the connectors. My local supply house has the ends for several different sized wire. You should find what you want with one call to a good shop. The item descriptions are what is lacking......

 

[mikehaugen]

I am just throwing this out there as I don't know the specs of the connectors off the top of my head, but the 25 dinse connectors are usually only put on smaller machines that probably don't have the power to benefit from awg 2 wire unless you are making them really long. I'm all about over sizing wire, but maybe there is a reason they only will accept wire of a certain size?

another option, is to trim the ends of the cables to fit into the terminal. You would probably also have to open up the end of the housing to accept the larger, insulated part of the cable as well, but it would be easier/cheaper than making a short set of adapters.

 

[Gordon Gould]

I am just throwing this out there as I don't know the specs of the connectors off the top of my head, but the 25 dinse connectors are usually only put on smaller machines that probably don't have the power to benefit from awg 2 wire unless you are making them really long. I'm all about over sizing wire, but maybe there is a reason they only will accept wire of a certain size?

another option, is to trim the ends of the cables to fit into the terminal. You would probably also have to open up the end of the housing to accept the larger, insulated part of the cable as well, but it would be easier/cheaper than making a short set of adapters.

Seems strange this is all so mysterious. No one seems to know what can plug into what. I went into the LWS and he said "some of those inverter type welders don't like extensions on them". When asked why he didn't know. Sort of like what you are saying - maybe heavy wire is a no-no

It is a 200A 220VAC welder. 100% duty cycle @ 160A. It has 10' cables - a little short. All I know came from this Lincoln article - I am just trying to get a firm grasp on this stuff.

Selecting the Proper Size Welding Cables

If it is easy I would make some #2 extensions about 30' long but could live with #4, I guess ????? That would give me 80' of wire.

I can't think of why heavier would not be better.

gg

 

[mikehaugen]

Heavier is always better, I didn't mean that heavier wire was a no no, just that it may not be necessary. They could make the connectors accept 0000 wire, but they would be so big they wouldn't be practical.

Honestly without looking into it a bit I can't answer your question as to what may be available, but I don't think what you are trying to do is that unreasonable.

 

[Jeepnford]

Here's a chart on recommended cable sizes by amps and wire length. There are also some connectors. I want to make longer leads for the Dialarc I just bought and I think the connectors are called tweco. Too many kinds to pick from. 1�� Ft. Stick Welding Leads, 1��' Cable, Holder, Ground Clamp for sale - Welding Supplies from IOC Go to that page then click specs.

 

[yomax4]

You can trim the #2 strands just enough to fit the 25mm Dinse plug. The plastic jacket over the Dinse is tapered so you just snip a tad off the back to open it up enough to get the #2 into it. No big deal. Otherwise you can get a 25mm male with a 50mm female adaptor and then get 50mm male to plug into it but it's costly and a lot of crap hooked together. Not sure how far out you want to go but 50' of #2 is not out of the question and I had to laugh at the LWS saying the smaller machines don't like extensions unless he meant 115v primary cord extensions.

 

[tkevan]

Just did a #4 ground lead for my plasma with a 25 connector. I think you'd be hard pressed to get a #2 wire in there. The 25 male is pretty small. I did a #2 on a 50 for the ground on my 252i.