Tomorrow all analog tv signals will be gone. You know what that
> means, NO MORE TV. What will you do without the Jerry Springer show?
> How can you survive without all the soaps? This will be THE END !!!
> Prepare for disaster.
Much to their surprise, they will find out that at least 2 million households in the USA don't give a damn about television. I lived without one when I was in college. When I went back to school 20 years later, I sold my TV set, and lived happily without one. It's a huge time waster, only appropriate when you have lots of time to waste. When you get busy, TV is worse than worthless.
I bought a MIG welder: 115/120 Volt. On reading the manual, it says to plug it into a 20 amp outlet. In my garage, I only have 15A outlets (and one 240V for my Delta Unisaw)
I do have a double circuit, 2-15 amp breakers in the panel to a capped box on the wall in the garage. It was intended for a wall heater which I didn't need, so:
Can I tie the TWO 14 ga wires together at EACH end, to substitute for what would have been a single 12 ga for a 20 amp outlet ? It sounds like a NO-No but in theory, it should work
The strancg thing is, if you only used this for the welder you could probably put that 14ga wire on a 20a breaker but it is a problem because of the NEMA 5-15 or 5-20 receptacle.
I think the concern is that at some point, the one wire or the other may get broken. And then the entire load would be going through the one smaller wire.
The arc welders I've seen have a control to vary the amps flow through the electrode. Using a 15 amp breaker, and 14 ga wire, you may be able to weld at lower amps. I don't know if a mig welder has that kind of control.
Not to code and if a fire did result your insurance company would not be pleased! Ensure smoke alarm working in that area; on fresh batteries not AC powered! Also if tying the two black 14 AWG wires together for the hot lead. Then tie the two white 14 AWG wires together for the neutral lead. Because both 'sides' carry current. Also the two ground wires should be common. The size of the breaker as OP is aware is sized to protect the wire size. Not that putting up to 20 amps through a 14 AWG wire will cause it too burn off! Especially for something like a welder that has not only an intermittent use cycle but is often not used at maximum setting? But many of those 115/120 volt welders seem undersized. So we acquired a 230 volt wire welder model and have recently added the inert gas option. So we have wired our garage and those of two of our neighbours with individual 230 volt 30 amp circuits solely for the welder.
Read Article 630 of the NEC. Welders have special rules on the size of branch circuit conductors, because the duty cycle may be less than
100%. They are also exempt from the small conductor ampacity rule
240.4(D), so it may be allowed to use a #14 copper conductor on a breaker larger than 15 amps.
The real; problem with this idea is most small MIGs use a regular 5-15 plug so that will be considered a general use receptacle. Overloading with other equipment down the road is a very real possibility. If you are going to violate the code, his idea of paralleling the 14ga is a lot safer violation. (if there is such a thing)
Well, if the welder has a 5-15 plug and #14 calcs out as an acceptable branch circuit for the welder, I don't see any violation there. But as you point it, it would be advisable to use a single receptacle and to label it as for welder use only.
Yes, it s a good quality American made Hobart 140 welder, not a China cheepie. It has all variable settings/controls.
**There is a chart and graph I just found in the manual that says I can set the voltage to the #1 (of 4) setting and it can be used w/15A circuit but I'd still like to find/create a 20 outlet in the garage to be able to use the 3 higher settings as well.
I'd try and get a look at the NEC at the library but since I'm in Canada right now, I doubt if there's one available around here. Its true that the duty cycle is less than 100%, actually, from the graphs, it looks like a "normal" duty cycle is something under 40%, certainly less than 60%.
Well, after reading some of the helpful hints here, I decided to have a look in both the 240V (tablesaw) outlet box and the one intended for ( unused so far) electric heater..No Joy. Both are actually 240V 2 pole wired. There is only a black, white and ground in each box so its a straight 120+120 coming down each leg. The tablesaw is 12 ga and the heater is 14 so no way to make a legit
120V/20A out of those without rewiring the 12 ga.. and that would put an end to my 240V tablesaw circuit.
HMMM (lightbulb "on"): Now I do have a 120V/ 30A RV plug over on the other side of the garage..I wonder whats in there..if I could split off a 20A since I sold my RV and the outlet is never used anyway. I'll have to take a look.
Yup; use the RV socket solely for welding by changing the receptacle to a standard 3 prong plink .....! Suggest use a single not a duplex outlet. That means now and any time in future someone will not be able to plug two things into that dedicated 'welder' outlet at same time! As an example we used a single orange 3 pin North American outlet for our computer from the UPS supply in the basement. Accordingly our printers and scanner cannot be plugged into that and overload it's output. But the computer remains. If wanting to get fancy; could put a special polarized socket there and a special polarized plug on the welder. But that means you then can't easily plug the welder in anywhere else!
Since you have a 120v / 30A socket, it should ought to be possible to change the breaker that feeds that to a 20 amp breaker, and then put on the socket that matches your welder.
HomeOwnersHub website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here.
All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.