I just bought a new welder and need to wire in a 220v 50amp outlet.?

Question

The welder came with a 3 prong plug. I found a matching outlet at Lowes but it only has 3 wire connects not 4.

I heard there is a way to connect the neutral/white and ground wires at the outlet and connect the wire normally at the breaker box. I have read that you should seperate the neutral and ground within the unit you are hooking up but this is a brand new welder so there has to be another way.

Answer 1

If it is a 3 prong connector on the plug you only need 3 prongs on the outlet anyway. Ground and neutral are tied together in the breaker box so they are essentially the same. How many wires are in the cable you are running from the breaker to the outlet? If 4 conductors, red and black to the 220v breaker, white and the bare ground to ground. If 3 conductor black and white to the breaker and bare wire to ground.

Answer 2

Most of my welders are  three wire (14) of them we do have a couple of big welders that due run the separate ground. If the outlet has 3 wires there could be a place on the housing to ground the box that's how all of ours are. The red and black go on the red and black screws or gold in most cases, the white to the silver or N the green to the green s***w that may be on the housing, if its steel you could always drill it and add a s***w.

Answer 3

Adding a separate ground lug to those big, 30 and 50 amp plugs is a fairly recent thing, I don't see many 220v./30 - 50amp plugs with fourth ground prong. But you still need to ground the box (and by extension, the outlet itself).

My arc welder has only three lugs. When I ran the outlet for it, I connected the bare ground wire to the box itself effectively grounding the box and the white/neutral to the neutral lug of the outlet. Then, in the breaker panel box, I connected those two as normally (which will have both the white/neutral and the bare ground wire connecting to the same "buzz bar", yes?). This should be pretty typical?

Make sure you have adequate service to add this big circuit. And make sure you have the proper gauge wire and factor in any voltage drop if it is a long run of wire from the panel to the outlet.

Answer 4

I don't care what any Handy Andy tells you.

DO NOT CONNECT THE GREEN AND WHITE WIRES TO TOGETHER.

(You should have a 50A. 2 Pole breaker and #6 Cu. wire cable.)

The receptacle will have s***w connectors for the wires.

They should be marked, or coded.

If you have a green s***w, connect the bare ground wire to it.

The two 'phase' or 'line' screws are usually brass.

If the third prong is intended for the 'neutral, (white wire), it may be silver in color.