DIY WELDING OUTLET.....Step By Step Installation By An Electrician 

I'm very disappointed. Current code requires the use of a GFCI breaker for all outlets in a garage, including 240v. Yes you're using it as a shop, but the space would still be defined as a garage for code purposes. You also made no mention of using a torque wrench/driver for the terminal screws. Neither of these would've made an appreciable difference in the video length.

@@thomasbonse its very unlikely anyone is going to install a gfci for a welding outlet including myself. They only way would be if its new construction and its getting inspected. It never used to be that way and is totally unnecessary. And ive never used a torque wrench on a residential breaker. In a commercial MDP, yes definitely . I also mentioned to follow all local code requirements. Get real with what your nitpicking my video about. Its residential and you know it was a clean install.

@@SpicerDesignsLLC You are the one presenting yourself as a master electrician on an otherwise instructional video for DIYers. I pointed these specific issues out because there's good safety reasons for both and was part of the reason they made it into recent editions of NFPA 70. Too many DIYers don't know the relevant codes or even how to find the right information, so end up doing their project unsafely. I'm not pointing these issues out to nitpick, but rather because some of your audience may have only seen this video before they go off and try it themselves.

@@thomasbonse a “master electrician” is a non union foreman. I would never call myself a “master electrician”. I have been a union electrician for 20 years and been exposed to every aspect of electrical work. The arc fault breakers were a joke and the gfi on a welding outlet is a joke. Its just insurance companies trying to cover there ass. Nothing i presented in this video was unsafe. Are they making people go back and install gfci’s on welding outlets when it wasnt code just a short time ago? Whos enforcing that? If you dont agree with my install you are welcome to make your own video.

@@thomasbonse to be clear, i live in Indiana which has not adopted the new code requirements. Were still operating from the 2008 code. So nothing i did in my video was a code violation. Thats why i said follow your local code requirements If you want to get technical about it. Even if we were i still wouldn’t put it on a gfi.

You're telling me a zero contact voltage tester isn't a substitute for a 3 point check? Lol

Hah! Well put

Good eye. But i do keep things clean. My first boss was a real stickler for cleaning up.

Ya sounds good. Shoot me an email

Hah! I guess thats one way to look at it.

My native brother that was funny.... the deeper the box ... lol ... 😂😅

But not wetter "according to electricians"

Thank you! Glad you liked it.

It can be confusing to understand the concept. Its a split phase system. The neutral allows you to use half the potential of the voltage available which is the 240 volt. If you hooking up a welder, youll just need two conductors that will land on a two pole breaker and the bare ground will connect to the outlet as well. You only see a 240 volt circuit with a neutral on something like an oven or a dryer. Usually it’s something with some kind of display or control thats operating off 120 volt and doesnt have an internal control power xfmr.

thank you@@SpicerDesignsLLC

Good question. No penalty using larger wire. Its never a bad idea to increase wire size. It help with inrush current and the conductors stay cooler. No added resistance. Typically distance will add resistance and in the case you would increase wire size to accommodate voltage drop from the added resistance.

You only need one ground. Just use the bare copper for your ground. Your actually not supposed to have parallel grounds like that. You should connect it just as i did in the video.

@@SpicerDesignsLLC okay 👌 thanks!

Should always size the overcurrent protection based off the equipment. The suggested breaker size for that welder is 30 amps.

thx! and ill be gettigng a cnc plasma cutter thx to your videos! so thx for that too! @@SpicerDesignsLLC

@@jarrodmsimmonsable glad it was helpful. Feel free to reach out with any questions

Hell ya it hurts.

Nothing in my shop is getting inspected. Seems kind of excessive to me. I wont be installing any gfi breakers on any of my 240 volt circuits. I did see that update in the code book. Im going to look more into it. Great info and thanks for the comment.

@@SpicerDesignsLLC Thanks for the quick reply! Seems excessive to me as well.

Glad you enjoyed it. Shes been running around with the girls. Sometimes its hard to get her in all the videos. She should be in the next one.

You only need 3 wires for your welder unless its 3 phase. The 4th conductor in my installation was just a spare. If you lose a phase the welder should just not work. Shouldnt cause any damage. I cant speak for all welders but the newer ones shouldnt be effected

Thx...@@SpicerDesignsLLC

Awesome! Glad it was helpful for you. Ya anytime you measure between two hots and you get 0 volts, it means they are the same potential or the same phase. Good on you for getting it figured out and fixed. Thanks for the sub!

If you have multiple pieces of equipment your going to want separate circuits. If you want to spread out some welding outlets in different areas of the shop then you can use the same circuit. If you run two at the same time it will just trip the circuit.

It is true but its way overkill. Theres a lot of questions regarding a gfci breaker working on a 240volt circuit with no neutral. I think its just insurance companies covering their a$$es.

We us that tubing all the time. They make similar style spacers but i buy big rolls of that stuffs. Works great.

The white wire was just a spare conductor. Just had that cable laying around. I did land the bare conductor on the green ground screw on the device in the video. Maybe it was hard to see. I cant remember. Not sure why people are landing the white wire on the ground screw. Thats not typically done.

THANKS! @@SpicerDesignsLLC

Haha!

Followed by having as many kids as possible

I mean ive never done it but it looks pretty straight forward.

@@zachshiray8998 Yeah you just don't pull out. Everything else is the same

Knowing what 240 is atleast 😂

Im not sure. I can tell you ive never tripped it on a 30 amp breaker. Thats what the manual specs too for the breaker sizing.

Because its conductive metal. If something were to short against that metal box it could become energized. Thats why it needs to be grounded so it would short against the metal box and trip the breaker. If your using metal boxes with romex they have to be grounded.

My welding plug has a metal finger going to the ground terminal which is connected to metal face plate , however , under your advice I grounded the metal box with the grounding wire .@@SpicerDesignsLLC

@@SpicerDesignsLLC appreciate the explanation on grounding the metal box. So I am assuming this is only because you have attached the metal box to a wooden stud right? If mounting the metal box to a metal building that is already grounded then this would not be required right? Thank you! ~Ron

@@ron.bennett you would still need to ground it through the electrical panel even though the building steel is grounded. If your using conduit instead of romex then you wont need the grounding conductor.

​@@SpicerDesignsLLC correct sorry I should have been more clear on this. Yes the bare ground wire coming from the plug is ran back through metal conduit to the sub-panel and is grounded there. (ground and neutral are separated in the panel) The sub-panel itself is grounded to the metal building and to two grounding rods outside that are at least 6' apart and 8' deep. With all this, then there is no need to ground the wire inside the metal box correct? I mean it wouldn't hurt to go ahead and ground it there, but it would not be required right? Again thank you for your time. ~Ron

8 gauge is good up to 50 amps. So of thats all you have feeding your garage sub panel, you might be pushing it with the load. You may need to look into running a bigger feed to the garage before you install the heater.

You can put green tape on each end of the neutral wire and use it for your ground. There should be a bare copper wire, thats odd that theres not. May have been cut off flush with the jacket.

@@SpicerDesignsLLC Well no actually my neutral wire is bare coper. It also reads 120 when I check it across either of the two hots on the 220 outlet of mine. House was built in 1949. Is this safe? Should I try and move the bare coper wire off of the neutral bar inside the panel and connect it to the ground bar instead? I'm starting to think the wiring in my house was done wrong?

@DaveNorthWest no thats right. If its a sub panel that its mounted to then it needs to be on a separate buss. If its your main panel then it mounts to the neutral bar because its bonded. And it should read 120 from ground to each hot. The bare is your ground so your good.

Really needs to be a 4 wire setup with a neutral. The welder is only 240v. It would work though.

Good question. Ideally you want it to be dedicated for the welding outlet. If you want to run one welder in multiple locations then it’s acceptable to do that. As long at the conductors are sized correctly for the breaker. If you want to run two welders at the same time then you will need individual circuits. Hope that answered your question. I didnt look up any code requirements, thats just my recommendation.

@@SpicerDesignsLLC Thanks for the reply! My garage shares a wall with the drier (240V, 30amp breaker) and I was thinking about tying in an outlet for the garage side of the wall (for a welder) without running all the way back to the panel.

Glad to have you! You should be good with that setup. You can use a voltage drop formula too if your concerned. You should be fine with that as long as you bump the wire size up to the next gauge.

Not sure exactly what your asking. ill say the best way to size a breaker for a piece of equipment is to base it off the full load amps of that piece of equipment. Typically wants to size your breaker at 125% of the full load amps. Hopefully that helps. If you have any other questions, feel free to ask.

@@SpicerDesignsLLC Thank you makes sense I’m getting a welder for free and after you answer I know I need a 50 amp breaker. Thank you

Thanks. If you go 25’ you can get away with 10 awg SOOW cable. As you start to make it longer you will need to consider voltage drop and make the cable larger gauge. Theres a book called UGLY book that gives all the most used requirements for misc electrical needs. Pretty helpful for stuff like that.

Thanks for the sub! Ya just depends what you want to have in your shed. If its just lights and some outlets, all you really need is a 15 or 20 amp circuit with some 12/2 or 14/2. Hopefully the video was helpful. If you have any questions let me know.

@@SpicerDesignsLLC Be putting a millermatic 250 vintage in there along with a 5+ or better hp 80gal compressor for the sandblaster other than that just a small bench drill press and lights, chances are I would only be running these items separately

@@diggindiggenit6540 ahh ok. Ya youll want at least a 60 amp panel in there. You will need a 3 conductor with ground. Two hots, neutral, and ground.

@@SpicerDesignsLLC Okay thanks so much for the info, I have several panels and I found one a subpanel that has two 60amp breakers inside one with a test button on it, I was thinking I would use that in the shop so I could run another 30 amp breaker just for the lights and drill press etc. what I really need is a 200amp service that is for next spring the house is 100 amp and I have 2224 aluminum going 90 foot to my garage and I have one lincoln presision 275 tig that requires 115 amps per manual I have yet to use because lack of amps so I set aside some 1/0 copper for spring but the electric company suggested Not to have the run from the house to garage and just have them run a line to the garage 200amp and have a meter on that, problem is i am against those smart meters and that's all they use these days, I mean if they could keep the meter at the pole and not near the garage I would do it. One of those dang things for me is enough man, when they first put that thing in ringing ears constantly and other issues, i just don't like them. but 200amp service that would really be the ticket for the garage so I could power up it along with the two other work sheds I built around the garage, I will take your advise and go with a subpanel in the shed and just use the 6/4 I have and cap one of the extra lines like you did in this video, thanks for the advice.

Love the video! Little bit of humor but full mention of safety which is always required!

Youll need a multi meter and you might want to call an electrician.

@@SpicerDesignsLLC ok thank you.

Thanks. I did attach it to the device. May be hard to see but you can see me do it in the video.

Is there something specific you asking about the faceplate? Im not sure what your asking.

@@SpicerDesignsLLC oh the sticker that shows on the thumbnails.. I think i refers to the panel box ( cir 13...)

@@dcgo44r ohh. Thats just the circuit number of that welding outlet. I always label them in addition to the panel schedule. I like to do that when i do service work too. Most of the time the panels arent labeled well so it makes it easy for someone to find that circuit.

Thank you!

It's a banger. I'm ready to go touch my buss bar just for funzies.

I appreciate you taking notice of the quality of work. As far as the other stuff. Im just being myself. If i can make one person laugh its worth it.

Yes you will be fine with 8 awg wire on a 30-40 amp breaker. 50’ will have minimal voltage drop.

Ya you can definitely install a 50 amp breaker. I would just confirm the size of the breaker feeding that panel. Even though its a 100 amp panel, it may only have a 60 amp breaker feeding it from the main panel.

@@SpicerDesignsLLC As you advised I looked at the 200 amp "house" panel to find the breaker that feeds the panel in the garage. I found no breakers marked as "sub-panel" or "garage," only the usual breakers one would find in a residence with only one panel. Then I went to the 100 amp "garage" panel and found only 15 amp breakers for lights and 20 amp for outlets. Could this mean that both of the panels are independent of each other? If so, it seems I'm good to go to install my 50 amp breaker in the garage for the welding machine. Thanks again!

@@daven7915 mmh thats odd. There has to be something feeding that garage panel. Do you have more than one meter? Also might want to open the garage panel and confirm the size of the wire feeding it.

Ill have a video coming soon where i will cover that.

Thanks. It is a temp setup right now. Its a little different set up than a typical studded structure being its a pole barn. Yes you are correct, it would require nail guards.

Whats your question Doug?

@@SpicerDesignsLLC is that only for 240v panels? Because a panel with 120v mixed in will screw that up???

Im not following. You might have to call me on this one. Ill have to unblock you.

There are specific wire nuts for different ga wire and theres a limit on how many conductors can be splices too. In this care the wire is not connected at either end so you could use whatever you want. Could tape it instead too.

Oh ok good to know thank you sir !

I cant remember. I got that a long time ago. You should be able to find them at Home depot in the electrical section. Its a Klein

I don’t unfortunately. I made that a while back before i was doing youtube.

The main panel is typically your first means of disconnect which is where your neutral and ground are bonded. You can do the same install for the outlet in your main or a sub.

Thank you so much. Happy Easter.

You can but i wouldn’t recommend it.

Im a beginner on Tig welding as well. I think either one is a great option to learn for the price point. They are cheap welders but great to learn on. If it breaks ill just toss it. My plan is to get a nicer tig machine once I develop my skills some more. I dont have any experience with the Harbor Freight welders. Ive heard they are pretty decent. Sure beats spending $2k to learn on.

Thanks for the advice. I like the old sheathing label for the inside of the box. Great tips.

Neither. I would go with ArcCaptain 110/220 multi process or Yeswelders version. Personally, I think the ArcCaptain is the most user friendly as well as best bang for your buck. Great customer service as well.

Just got an Arccaptain and its pretty awesome. Made a video on that as well.

You typically only need a 30 amp breaker for those welders. The 50 amp plug is just a standard plug for welders. As your as your not going over 20-25’ with the extension cord you should be fine with to 10 awg. Hope that helps

While I agree this would certainly work given your loads (and be safe until some idiot swaps the 30A breaker for a 50A because it tripped charging his EV), isn't it generally a code violation to use a 14-50 or 6-50 outlet on a 30A circuit, just like installing a 5-20 outlet on a 15A circuit? I'm aware of the welder exception under 630, but wanted to be able to plug in vs hardwire, so could not guarantee it was dedicated otherwise (welder only sticker seemed iffy). So, I ended up running #6 and #8 to my 50A outlets. Not an electrician, btw, but I do my own wiring.

@@houseman2414 good question. As long as the wire is sized according to the breaker size your good. Anyone that could potentially swap the breaker should be qualified to do so and would recognize the wire size. Worst that would happen if some plugged in a larger load would be tripping the breaker.

Im not sure yet. I have a plan to remove some of the wall panels and run pipe inside the walls. If i did surface mount i would probably install a couple chases to a small trough above the panel and then run my conduit out of that.

Good luck with your project. I say machine a lot and it just became a thing. I now have a brand called machine with a cool logo. Youll see that in some of my newer videos.

@@SpicerDesignsLLC I kinda figured that’s what it was 😂😂😂… thanks… I’ll reply once it’s done … just so you know I didn’t shock myself 😂😂😂😂

I dont have any videos for installing a sub panel unfortunately.

Theres typically a bare copper conductor in romex used for grounding. The neutral was just an extra conductor. If i did land the white wire for a ground, it would have to be identified with green tape.

@SpicerDesignsLLC So it wouldn't ruin anything or be dangerous to do that? The metal box will be grounded with the bare wire, so if a hot wire touches the metal box, it will trip the circuit.

@@mazzonemichael well you dont want to have parallel grounds. As long as you ground the metal box your good. The device will ground itself to the metal box. But you dont want to have one ground conductor to the box and another grounding conductor to the device. Hopefully that answers your question.

@SpicerDesignsLLC I didn't see where you put the bare wire on the ground lug of the receptacle. I was confused for a minute. But I wired my dryer with red black and white and put the bare wire on the metal box. It works good. But im not a pro.

@@mazzonemichael i thought i did. Id have to go back and watch. You should be fine as long as its grounded. Hopefully the video was helpful otherwise.

all preference. Not something we typically do unless it's an outside outlet or a meta cut in box. The circuit should be dead before working on it.

You could tape the white wire green and use it for a ground. There was a bare copper ground conductor in that Romeo. I grounded the metal box with it and grounded it to the receptacle itself. You may have missed it in the video. It's definitely grounded. I could have used a two conductor with a bare ground but I had the three conductor laying around.

Sounds like you know how to read a code book. You dont need me. Last i remember there were some exceptions in residential where you could bump up the breaker size to the next standard size. Thats what allowed you to use 8awg for up to 50 amp and 4awg for 100 amp. I mostly run individual conductors in conduit raceways where i know those wire sizes are acceptable in residential settings. I personally like to oversize the wires for larger loads like i did in the video. Hopefully this answers your question but i dont think you needed me too.

I am not an electrician but just trying to learn and understand. Your video was more detailed than many others I watched. I was surprised to learn that Romex requires a derate to 60C when the data sheet specs it for 75C for example, so I then needed to move from 8ga to 6ga for a 50A circuit. I haven't found a technical reason for using the 60C column for NM-B other than "that's code". I originally planned to use 8ga based on the 75C column, and it would have been easier with smaller wire and lower cost. Wish I could have but I wasn't sure if there was additional risk other than not being code compliant. I'm already done now though. Thanks for taking time to reply.

@@mbrick ya no problem. Romex is kind of goofy. Im not a big fan of it. Sounds like you have a good handle on understanding the code book so thats good. Best thing might be to call your local inspector and see what they prefer. Residential tends to be a little more lenient.

​@@SpicerDesignsLLCGood idea checking with the inspector, I'll try and reach out just for future knowledge. I went with Romex because I do not have experience with conduit on existing work where I'm not cutting open the wall.

Thank you! Glad it was helpful

Thank you! Glad it was helpful. Thanks for the comment Chris

Thanks. Yes nail guards are important for any romex. My setup is temporary and i am the only one that would put any screws in the wall. I should have made mention of the nail guards in the video though.