this is the breaker box in my garage and i need a 220v plug added in there so i can power my tig welder. the tig is the smiley 220v single phase. well here are the pic of the braeker box.




hopefully it can be done and its not too hard so i wont have to call the electrition.

 

You have room for one more 220v line on that box. Just get the same brand of breakers...get the pair like you have there, stick'em in and wire.

 

thanx for the quick responce. can anyone else second what RC000E saying?

 

take out the 220v breaker or snap a pic take it the hardware store and aget a similar breaker but the rating you need for the tig and a 220v plug and your all set to go. Remeber if your running the wire in conduit buy individual wires because of the heat build up can cause a fire when you buy wire in a sheath example like romex

 

THANK YOU

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Howitt &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">take out the 220v breaker

First of all, dont take it out. This is your service disconnect, they backfed the panell though a breaker, if you notice there is no wire on the main lugs. This is perfectly fine, however the cover should be labeled 'main disconnect'. We have done this various times. This means, that the wires on that breaker are feeding the panell, the panell isnt feeding the wires.

Remeber if your running the wire in conduit buy individual wires because of the heat build up can cause a fire when you buy wire in a sheath example like romex

There is no problem using wires in a conduit (ie. T90) Or running BX, i recommend BX over romex in a garage when exposed since i imagine it will be in this case, its more durable and less prone pinching and such from impact of items

</TD></TR></TABLE>

Now, The breakers you have there i believe are 'FPE' Push in style. Now to do this safely, you will need to turn the power off to this pony panell, Turn off the 2 pole 50 amp breaker. This will kill the power to your panell, but as we have said the wires feeding the breaker will still be live, unless you kill it at a prelocation.. IE. Wherever it is being fed from, your house perhaps?

Now, Just turn off one of the smaller 15amp breakers, and remove it, they push in down the center, so carefully pull back from the middle, and it will kinda unclip. I hate push in breakers personally. Then take it to home depot. But first Draw a picture of the style of plug your tig welder uses. Im not familliar with these machines. But on the end of the plug, it should say something IE. 120/220V 30amp or 220V 30amp etc..

OK, so as an example it says '120/220V 30amp' what size wire do you need? First of all 120/220V means you need a neutral, so you will need 3 wire, (red/black/white).. The ground is on all these, so we dont need to discuss that. Now 30amp means #10awg. So you need a chunk of 10/3 BX.

Now if you choose to run conduit, which i dont recommend, since it gets more complicated with more pieces, straps and such. You WILL need to pull a ground wire though that conduit. Even if its metalic tubing VS PVC, i always pull grounds.

Now to keep it simple do the following things.

Take a pic of your service, and remove 1 breaker.
Draw a picture of the style plug on your TIG welder, and if you can get any info off it.. (ie 120/220 30amp).
Take a measurment of how far away your service is from where you want your plug (add a bit for connectiongs)
Go to homedepot and find the electricain in the electrical aisle, and he will be sure to take care of you!

So much misunderstanding on how to do proper electrical wiring.. Plumbers do plumbing, electricans do electrical. For any more Q&A Be sure to consult only a qualified electrican for questions on such.

Goodluck

 

HamiltonRex

thanx your information will help me a ton!

bump

 

this is a subpanel as hamiltonrex said. the neutrals and grounds are seperated. they should have landed those wires on the lugs provided on the left side of the panel. then you would have the spot where the 240V 50A is and 2 others which someone else has pointed out too you.
unless its a straight feed through system which i doubt it is. whoever installed it is a moron. its probably double protected. probably has another 60 or 100A breaker at the other panel feeding this one then the 50 at this panel shown.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by 1 2 NV &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">this is a subpanel as hamiltonrex said. the neutrals and grounds are seperated. they should have landed those wires on the lugs provided on the left side of the panel. then you would have the spot where the 240V 50A is and 2 others which someone else has pointed out too you.
unless its a straight feed through system which i doubt it is. whoever installed it is a moron. its probably double protected. probably has another 60 or 100A breaker at the other panel feeding this one then the 50 at this panel shown.</TD></TR></TABLE>

its backfed, the feed may come from a splitter which i doubt, or they wanted a disconnect at the panell, which isnt nessecary, if you have a FUSED disconnect in the house... So yes, you need a fused disconnect, maybe they have it on the lugs in the house if there was no room (unsafe) who knows. Definatley could have been done in another fasion though.. lol.

We have done this at work instead of using a disconnect, its cheaper on material, and easier, and theres some places where we dont have room for a disconnect if the area for our service is tight.

 

good stuff!

 

Who knew sparkies where so handy to have around ?

Good info