[AT] Wire size for welder?? Help welder people!

[Francis Robinson]

At 12/7/04 8:52:00 PM, you wrote:
>Hi John
>You should use 6 gauge wire, 10 gauge on your buzz box sounds way too
>light. What's the input amps on your buzz box, what size breaker are
>you using?
>
>Ron



	Actually if you look at any Lincoln "buzz box" made in the last 20 years and look carefully at that big 
heavy input wire and molded plug that the factory puts on them you will see that the wire is only 12 gauge.   :-)
	I ran one successfully for several years (many years ago) on 10-3 fused with a pair of 30 amp slow blow 
fuses. Of course I was not doing production welding with that rig and would not have tried. Greg was right 
about what is needed and what is well to use. If you do production welding go heavier but I doubt 1 in 50 on 
this list have even a remote need for that kind of capacity. It reminds me of a fellow I knew that used his huge 
4 wheel drive Versitile to grind pig feed with...
	The propensity of this group to shoot for massive overkill with its resultant waste of money keeps me 
chuckling... Be sure it is heavy enough but a factor of 10X or 20X overkill doesn't make you any safer than 
adequate + a little better. Some guys like to add up the power requirements of every tool on the shop and size 
the service for that. I don't know about you guys but I can use a circle saw with one hand, a sabre saw in the 
other and just maybe a drill between my knees Other than that and maybe a broom handle up my ass to 
sweep the floor with that is about all of the tools I can use at the same time...   ;-)    The rest just sit there 
using no power until I shut off something I'm using.



"farmer"


Francis Robinson
Central Indiana USA
robinson at svs.net