Right now, I'm in the process of getting quotes to wire my shop for 230V. We just got a 220V welder, and will be getting a vertical milling center later in the summer. I'm not familiar with the cost of electrical, but the quotes I'm getting seem a bit high.

My shop is located in a big building with 3 other tenants, and the electrical room for the entire building is in my unit. We've already found the 230V source in the electrical room. We're planning to put the box and outlet maybe 5 ft. from the room. So in total, it's maybe 15 ft. of conduit to the box. Right now, all the quotes I'm getting are $1100-1200 for what the electricians themselves estimate to be no more than about 6 hours of work. We have 3 phase, so they won't be needing to install a step up transformer or anything (that was another $900)

Is this quote in line? I have no experience w/ commercial electricians, so I don't know what they charge. If it's normal, then I have no problem paying it. I guess my question is, those of you who have had this done, roughly what were you paying and is this price reasonable? I know electrician charges are going to vary depending on geographic location, but I just need some sort of number to compare it to.

 

I might confused as to exactly what you want to do...but I wired up my 60 amp, 220v 180SD myself. Cost me about $100 in wire, breaker, receptacle, outlet, conduit etc. Ran the conduit about 15ft.

Are you actually having a whole new breaker box installed and running a new main?

 

at my house, i had an electrician run wire to a new panel box in my garage from the house panel box in my house. then he ran a 220 and 110 line from the new box about 2 feet away. all of this ended up costing around $400 for parts and labor. which included a 220 outlet, 50 amp breaker for the 220. a 110 outlet, 30 amp breaker for that. a new sub-panel box. and all the wiring, which wasnt a whole lot. only about 5 feet of 4/3? from box to box. and the 2 feet of 6/3 to the 220 and 2 feet of 12/3? to the 110. it ended up taking the guy about 4 hours

 

Yes, a new breaker box. We thought about just wiring it off the existing breaker box, but it's in one of the front offices 90 ft. from where we intend to have the equipment.

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Keyhole &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">I might confused as to exactly what you want to do...but I wired up my 60 amp, 220v 180SD myself. Cost me about $100 in wire, breaker, receptacle, outlet, conduit etc. Ran the conduit about 15ft.

Are you actually having a whole new breaker box installed and running a new main? </TD></TR></TABLE>

 

I would say just call some "small guy" electricians. No reason to spend big bucks for a big commercial company.

 

That is definitely way too much. That shouldn't be more than $500 imo. We paid something, I think $600-$800 to have some other minor stuff done and have about 30 feet of cable big enough to handle 100+ amps (to my specification, must handle that) for my Syncrowave 350. He also installed a nice breaker box right next to the welding machine. I'm using 1-phase, but 3-phase shouldn't be that much more expensive. Heck, a phase converter itself is only a few hundred dollars if you don't have 3-phase to begin with.

 

It depends you guys. If he is talking about getting 3 phase power wired in its gonna be pricy. If its single phase you need, you already have it in your breaker box!!!!!

 

Well, our building is already set up for 3 phase. There is a huge main line running from the electrical room in our unit that is split to the other units. There is a circuit box that they are going to access. There is a 100amp circuit that they plan to use, the breaker box would be placed about 2 ft. above it. I'm just going to call a bunch more places. These quotes I'm getting now are just all shops near mine, pretty much commercial only and franchises. Thanks for the help guys.

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by legendboy &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">It depends you guys. If he is talking about getting 3 phase power wired in its gonna be pricy. If its single phase you need, you already have it in your breaker box!!!!!</TD></TR></TABLE>

 

Ask your friends, especially if you know shop owners, contractors, or business owners. Calling around is a good idea.

 

big bump
Has anyone done it them selfs besides keyhole?
My breaker box is right on the other side of my garage. I would like to have the plug right where my garage door is so i can weld outside or inside. I would need about 25 feet of cable. How much do you think all this would cost? Its going to be used for a tig welder mostly and sometimes the stick welder.
Thanks for your help.

 

Sounds about right to me.
You said they have to mount another box and go through a wall? Is the wall just drywall or is it brick?
They said 6+ hour, what's their hourly 80-100hr?

500-600 for labor
400-500 for parts, they may only pay 200 or so for parts but they still have to mark it up.
Some contractors thrown in a "truck charge" to cover gas and fittings, electrical tape, shop equipment, stuff like that. Those can be anywhere from 25-75 depending on the contractor.

it really all depends on what exactly they have to do. I would still call around and get more quotes, you might be able to find it cheaper.

Sometimes it sounds easy over the Internet but since we are not there, we cant see the job and say if its overpriced. The contractors might have seen something that can take extra time, and their price is higher because of that.

good luck.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by y7turbo &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">
Sometimes it sounds easy over the Internet but since we are not there, we cant see the job and say if its overpriced.
</TD></TR></TABLE>

best answer ever.

take a picture of your electrical room and post it up and give a better explanation of what exactly you are trying to do.

are you having them install a new panel in the electrical room and running some conduit/receptacles for the 2 machines.

 

to run our shop's electric this year i think the landlord has spent around 7-10K. we had him bring in 3phase, 220, and completely rerun the 110,120 to our needs, he told us to get a list mark where we wanted what, what we needed the electricians to wire up for us and he would cover it. about 4months later we had some windows redone and our main breaker for the 110 was mounted to a board that was covering a window, he had the electricians completely move the box and rerun half the shop again. that was three times in one year they did the electrical. They were billing out 3-4guys 8hrs a day for them to bullshit and take their sweet time.

Ask your landlord if you got a really good guy he might just do it and cover the cost, it will help him in the long run when new tenants are judging the space based on power setups.

 

The best thing you can do is find a union electrician that's slow on work...They're willing to do it on the side for a good deal, get it done quick, and you know it's being done by a pro.