Need electrical help

whitneyj

whitneyj

Well-Known Member
Joined
Apr 30, 2008
Location
Mayville, WI
Wasn't sure if this should go in general tech or not, but I just picked up a Miller 252 and it has a 3 prong plug for the 220V outlet. Problem is the 220V plug in my garage has 4 prongs. Is there anyway to make an adapter of sorts? Like take a 4 prong male plug, wire it using a heavy gauge "extension cord" going to a box with a 3 prong female outlet? I'm not looking to mount the adapter box on the wall, my dryer is nowhere near my grarage so I'm not making an extention cord, and I don't have any available spots in my circuit breaker box for another 220V outlet (besides not being able to do house electric) thoughts? Help?
 
Hit up the miller website and see if they sell different cords for the welder? (Kinda like a drier cord.)
 
Change the 220 outlet in the garage. Look up www.diy.com they can tell you how to wire it.


Rusty
 
go to lows and get the matching chord end plug for that existing outlet in your garage. The fourth prong is a nuetral prong which you dont need for a welder but you may need for other equipment later.
 
I'm waiting on a call back from Miller, I'm not touching my welder without permission from Miller so I don't potentially void any warranties.

I need the 4 prong in my garage as that's what my Miller Thunderbolt and big ol air compressor run off of.

I appreciate all the help guys. I guess I hadn't even thought about possibly wiring the welder differently.
 
I would not change the plug on the welder. My dad just installed a 3 prong outlet for the miller he just got and installed a separate 50 amp circuit I think. If you need more details I can get them from him.
 
Is the four-prong a three-phase outlet? If so, you can pull the power off two of the legs and the neutral to make an adapter, but you need to know which pin is what. I'd just drop a new line and a breaker, though.
 
catfishblues said:
Is the four-prong a three-phase outlet? If so, you can pull the power off two of the legs and the neutral to make an adapter, but you need to know which pin is what. I'd just drop a new line and a breaker, though.
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Oooh, If you've got 3 phase wiring in the house, DON'T EVER LET THE POWER COMPANY TRY TO TALK YOU INTO CHANGING IT!!!! It's way more efficient for your A/C etc to run 3 phase. (I kinda doubt the house has it unless it's a pretty old house.)
 
whitneyj said:
Wasn't sure if this should go in general tech or not, but I just picked up a Miller 252 and it has a 3 prong plug for the 220V outlet. Problem is the 220V plug in my garage has 4 prongs. Is there anyway to make an adapter of sorts? Like take a 4 prong male plug, wire it using a heavy gauge "extension cord" going to a box with a 3 prong female outlet? I'm not looking to mount the adapter box on the wall, my dryer is nowhere near my grarage so I'm not making an extention cord,SIZE="5"] and I don't have any available spots in my circuit breaker box for another 220V outlet[/SIZE](besides not being able to do house electric) thoughts? Help?
Click to expand...

Waiting on a call from Miller today. Doesn't make sense to change the plug in the wall, then I have no way of using my air compressor and I have to rewire my stick welder-again.
 
Alright, got the info from Miller, they said have at er, just don't mess it up. I don't do house electrical so I'm not entirely sure on a couple things-primarily how to locate which wires are (+) and which one is (-) and neutral. I'm a diesel mechanic not an electrician. I've checked online-including diy.com-and nothing is giving me any sort of info on what I'm looking to do. If anyone has any better info, or a for sure place to research this I'd really like to save myself some coin on calling an electrician as I just dropped big $$ on this machine.
 
The wires should be color coded. Usually they use white, black, and green but it just depends on the electrician. Open up your service panel and remove the cover. You will see the hot wires, neutral wires and ground wires. Note the colors. Go from there.
 
Call an electrician. No offense, but if you don't know enough to know that there is no positive and negative lines with AC wiring, you probably shouldn't be tackling this job. You need to know how to read a meter and understand what you're looking at. And like you said, you just dropped a wad of cash on this. You screw it up, and they'll probably deny any warranty. That'll cost a lot more than an electrician. You can't really trust the wiring colors, that all depends on who wired it and what they had on hand. A competent electrician could probably knock this out in an hour or less if you have the parts for the adapter cable on hand. You'll need a male plug to go into the wall, a female receptacle that matches the welder plug, and at least a couple of feet of heavy stranded cable, probably 8 gauge or better. Somebody with more experience could probably chime in here with more specific info on the cable needs.
 
catfishblues said:
Call an electrician. No offense, but if you don't know enough to know that there is no positive and negative lines with AC wiring, you probably shouldn't be tackling this job. You need to know how to read a meter and understand what you're looking at. And like you said, you just dropped a wad of cash on this. You screw it up, and they'll probably deny any warranty. That'll cost a lot more than an electrician. You can't really trust the wiring colors, that all depends on who wired it and what they had on hand. A competent electrician could probably knock this out in an hour or less if you have the parts for the adapter cable on hand. You'll need a male plug to go into the wall, a female receptacle that matches the welder plug, and at least a couple of feet of heavy stranded cable, probably 8 gauge or better. Somebody with more experience could probably chime in here with more specific info on the cable needs.
Click to expand...

No offense taken, like I said, I'm a diesel mech, I deal with nothing but DC, so AC is Greek to me hence why I don't deal with it. I'll be calling a buddy today to see if he can't work a quick miracle for me today as it's just the male plug that needs to be wired in. Thanks for the help guys.
 
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