Want plasma cutter, but no power hookup

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snapetwo

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I am wanting to buy a plasma cutter, I found a good deal on one.
With all the body work and frame work, tunnel mods im gonna be doing, building brackets, i need one.

Prob is, I dont have any 240v hook ups, in fact only one I have is the basement for the clothes dryer.

I would need like at least a 50ft extension cord.
I have read mixed reviews to the affect that extension cord will work and also no, that will cause a fire or kill you..

Any ideas?
and no, rewiring is not an option.
 
I ran a short 15' cord off my hobart plasma cutter using my dryer hookup. Never had a problem or heatup of the cord. And I did hours of cutting
 
you can buy the wire in bulk from lowes or home depot and just add the plugs on the ends if you can. thats what we did for our 25' cord for a welder
 
Thank you, you guys are great.

now if I can just figure out where to start getting metal...I live in Colorado Springs, CO.
not a small city, yet can never find metal, even at the "metal factories"...
tried to buy a sheet of 11ga sheetmal, couldn't. Was told "we could order it for you"....hell I can order myself.
Looks like im gonna be driving 60 miles to Denver go get it. HAHA

solve one prob, get another. Rinse and repeat.
 
Where is your breaker box in relation to where you are going to be working?

If it's outdoors, and closer than the dryer connector, you could easily wire a connector in there, even if "temporary."

How about your range? gas? electric?

When I built the carport out front, I shut off the breaker for the AC, got into the box, and temporarily wired a pigtail into the AC disconnect
 
I've got a 120 volt plasma cutter, a cheap one,, but for over a year,, it has worked great, cuts all the bodywork well,, and have cut up to 1/4 in steel for a custom trailer hitch, even knocked the heads off of some frozen spring mount bolts. (that was messy, but I was outta acetylene)... Haven't needed any better yet.. hope it helps..
 
Garage is out back behind house, would say 50ft would be a safe bet.
house is old, built in the 50s, and the previous owner did alot of "stuff" to it...not necessarily on the up and up.
Breakerbox is actually in the kitchen pantry, however a shelving system if you will was built around it, making it damn near impossible to even trip a breaker.
Dryer is almost directly under breakerbox, in the basement. I'll be having to run the exstension cord out of a basement window out to the garage.
 
snapetwo said:
Garage is out back behind house, would say 50ft would be a safe bet.
house is old, built in the 50s, and the previous owner did alot of "stuff" to it...not necessarily on the up and up.
Breakerbox is actually in the kitchen pantry, however a shelving system if you will was built around it, making it damn near impossible to even trip a breaker.
Dryer is almost directly under breakerbox, in the basement. I'll be having to run the exstension cord out of a basement window out to the garage.
Click to expand...
you can do the extension cord route, I would make one, just make sure you get a large enough gauge of wire. Too small and you will start a fire...I think I went overkill on mine but I did mine out of like 8 gauge wire. I use my dryer plug too with like a 35 ft cord.
 
Ya, I was thinking 8 gauage myself, walking to a co-worker who used to be a welder before getting into IT, he thinks 8 is bit over kill, 10 would prob be better.
Eitherway, I think this is my only option right now.
 
snapetwo said:
Thank you, you guys are great.

now if I can just figure out where to start getting metal...I live in Colorado Springs, CO.
not a small city, yet can never find metal, even at the "metal factories"...
tried to buy a sheet of 11ga sheetmal, couldn't. Was told "we could order it for you"....hell I can order myself.
Looks like im gonna be driving 60 miles to Denver go get it. HAHA

solve one prob, get another. Rinse and repeat.
Click to expand...

Don't know if it will help, but I've found the place to get steel around here (Dallas) -- a metal recycler. Sounds like it would be all nasty scrap metal, but no. Warehouses full of fresh stock, in any size I need. Cheap, too. Might see if you have such places any around there...
 
ha, actually went to a place like that, and it was the place that told me they would have to order it.
Im still working on it, gotta be some place.
 
snapetwo said:
Ya, I was thinking 8 gauage myself, walking to a co-worker who used to be a welder before getting into IT, he thinks 8 is bit over kill, 10 would prob be better.
Eitherway, I think this is my only option right now.
Click to expand...

It depends on the Plazma you are using at its maximum amp draw. On the rental machines I have I run 8ga and have some with 200ft of cord on it. No problems at all.
 
We have a 100ft welder cable in our shop just in case we have a need to weld on the 24ft box truck out in the yard.... Which we have had to do... As long as your extension cord is rated for the it you will have no issues.
 
problem is not the extension cord, it is can the wire supplying the drier deal with the load from the extension cord? chances are no. how many folks run a heavier gauge wire then is needed?? not many........
 
maybe i should just look into oxy/acet, before i risk burning my house down.
would be cheaper, and i have a torch to heat and shape metal...hmm
 
What are the listed power requirements of the cutter? I used to routinely extend a Lincoln 200A buzzbox, and later a Century AC/DC welder, with no10 to a dryer plug. This was on a 40A circuit. You can get away from this just fine because the wiring won't be in a wall, or conduit, where it can overheat.

Sounds to me from what you describe the dryer/ basement window is as good as you'll get for a quick/ temporary hookup.
 
That thing will work just fine (20A draw) on no10 wire from your dryer connection
 
I run my 110 amp mig off a 5500 watt homelite. I have run it all day off and on for 2 years. It will go all day on a tank of gas.

Great. Just a little noisy.
 
67Dart273 said:
That thing will work just fine (20A draw) on no10 wire from your dryer connection
Click to expand...

Exactly, no problem at all running that on 10 ga. Trying to run it off a generator may give you issues though. Newer inverter welders with microprocessor control boards like a clean wave form which most generators do not supply. That leads to aggravation when they work one time and then the very next they do not.
 
http://www.sportsmansguide.com/net/cb/etq-6000w-generator.aspx?a=573657

13 hp generator.


Only down side is recoil start which is probably why it is a little cheaper.

http://www.harborfreight.com/engine...generator-certified-for-california-68525.html

Hauus electric start with good reviews..


Mine is 11 hp homelite (midgrade chinese) and it is 5500 W I believe. Runs my harbor freight 110 mig like a champion! Kind of noisy so I built a box with sound deadening and air duct fans for exhaust exit, generator cooling and air into the cooling intake of the motor, also I added a fan to suck out the heat from my mig's metal housing.

Only delay on mine was getting the unusual 220 vac plug (which fit the generator socket) and hooking it onto my welder power input cable. I bought a weird dryer plug/cable and grafted it on the existing power line. Then I had double length input cable on my welder too.



I drive around with it in my farm truck just welding shi# all over the place.
 
There is never any need to go to a bigger gauge extension cord than what you have in the wall. For instance most dryers run on a 30A breaker with a 10ga wire size. The rule of thumb is to go up a guage for every 100ft of wire ran. Since that plasma cutter runs on 25A, you'll be fine. If it was 40A then you'd most likely be SOL as far as running it off the dryer circuit goes.
 
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