Stick Welder Receptacle

Is there any reason I can't mount a 50 amp receptacle for a welder a few inches below the panel to save on the cost of the wire? Is THHN or 6/3 nm preferred?
      

I know this is beating a dead horse but I feel like I need some clarification. I will be installing a NEMA 6-50R Receptacle for a welder in my garage and I have figured out that I will not need the neutral from reading other posts here.  But do I need to ground the receptacle box?  I am using a metal Raco box.
      

I participate in a Pop-up camper discussion group (Popup Portal) and the following was posted reguarding the use of 30 amp extension cords:





"I just returned from Mobile Mart, my go to store for anything for my TT.  Was looking for a 25ft extension for my 30 amp power cord. The salesman  filled me in on some tips about buying extension cords for service.



1.  Never buy a black cord unless you have to have it now or it's the only  thing they have. The black cord absorbs and holds heat. We all know what  to much heat or amperage draw will do to an extension cord. Cords come  in a variety of colors.....orange, blue, yellow, etc. I picked up a  yellow one for visibility.



2. When your plugged in and have left  over cord DO NOT coil it up on the ground. Spread it out so any and all  heat can disipate easier. I usually pull just enough out to reach the  box and leave the rest inside the camper. I don't believe he was talking  about what is in the camper that but whatever is outside the camper  needs to be spread out.



3. If you have to have a lot of line  spread out to be able to plug in he suggested some type of covering to  shade the cord. I'm pretty sure this would pertain to monthly campers  and others that stay in one spot for awhile. Even still a good idea for  those of us that are down south here with temps in the triple digits."



I suggested that most (or all) of this is BS.



What say you?
      

I spend alot of time outdoors and use my power tools or air compressor alot and use a 12 gauge contractors cord.  One problem I always have is that with my outdoor receptacle being above my deck sometimes the cord slips between the boards and hangs up and really causes a problem if the storm door is opened as it also catches the cord sometimes, and already damaged my other cord.



I am wondering if there are any issues with running the cord through pvc along the edge of the house and to the receptacle to protect it.



I am also wondering, since my old cord is damaged at one end, if rather than trying to repair it, if there is any code violation of running it into a weatherproof box and wiring it to a GFCI receptacle, reason I wonder this is that I have one on hand and have had no other use for it as I rent the house and cannot do any wiring to it, but it has no GFCI outlet which concerns me at times.
      

Hello everyone,I have a question about a forklift battery charger i bought. Ok,its an exide forklift battery charger 36 volts. It weighs a ton so i am having to run a 25 foot extension cord to it. My question is,my 220 wall outlet has three holes so i went to lowes and made a 220 extension cord. Now i get to the ac cable coming out of the charger that hooks to the extension cord(plug was cut off),there are 4 wires coming out of the cable green,white,red, and black......the guy at lowes said i could buy a 3 prong plug for it to plug into the female end of the extension cord because one of the 4 wires is probably neutral and i wouldnt have to hook up but the green,white and either the red or black.....is he right? Inside the charger the red,white and black all go to big fuses and green to ground. Also above the fuses it says "factory set to 480 volts ac". I guess my question is,will this charger only work using a 4 prong wall outlet(mine only has 3) and with 4 prong plug hooked to cable coming out of the charger itself or is the guy at lowes right in saying that only the red OR black wire has to be used? Sorry if this is confusing but ive searched and searched online for 3 days and havent found anything. Thanks in advance for any help-Kevin
      

I'm new to this site.  But would appreciate some troubleshooting.  I just renovated my kitchen, gutted and all, finished in the Fall.  I did not replace wiring to the dryer, nor tamper with it, to my knowledge.  We did have an electrician add a small fuse panel.  We did not add more appliances then before, added some lights, but mostly used the room to separate things out.  Had a mentor do the wiring, many years of experience, very tidy and careful work, though not electrician by trade.  We have a standard 200 amp box as far as i know.  The house is 100 years old, but the wiring isn't.



In October my mother in law heard a very loud bang.  The electric dryer had been running.  She smelled smoke.  At the dryer receptacle was molten plastic sprayed onto the wall, caused by overheating at that point, due to I don't know what.  I thought maybe I had knocked something loose in the receptacle when i was drywalling around it.  I can't remember now if the breaker had tripped.  The receptacle and plug were toast. 



I replaced the receptacle, I replaced the dryer cord, not the breaker.   The dryer worked fine until february, when it stopped heating.  I found a bad thermal fuse and replaced it, the very common two pronged white one. 



The dryer worked fine until early April when it stopped heating again.  I checked all the fuses/thermostats on the back and the heating element, as I had done the first time.  Nothing was bad.  I checked the voltage coming out of the wall, as I had done the first time, only this time I did it correctly and got a reading that told me to check the breaker in the panel, which had not thrown.  When I checked the voltage between the Nuetral Bus and the two terminals on the Dryer's 30 amp breaker I only got a good reading on one of them, telling me that the breaker was bad.  While at the box, i noticed that to the main breaker, from where the conduit comes into the box from outside, the nuetral wires are bare all the way up, no insulation, and at the terminal of the main breaker they appear to have all melted together, even a couple small pieces have melted off of the "bundle." 



Switched the range 50 amp breaker with the dryer, dryer worked fine, nothing was back fed either.  Bought a new 30 amp breaker for the dryer and installed it on Saturday.  Also on Saturday we were given a dryer, about 4 years old, same as ours, so i hooked it up and saved ours for a spare, which I deemed still good since it seemed the breaker was the issue.  New Dryer worked fine from saturday until today.  Now it won't turn on, though it didn't cut out mid load yesterday either.  The breaker did not trip.  I repeat, no tripped breaker.  I just checked the voltage at the wall and it seems to have that same problem where one side of the receptacle gets a reading of 120, and the other a reading of about 5.  The problem must be bigger than the breaker.  I am not an electrician, I am a welder.  I have gone as far as I could on my own.  Thank you.
      

I put in a 240v circuit with two AWG 4 and AWG 6 for ground THHN, less than 20' from the panel. this is for a future welder, compressor or whatever. What size breaker should I put in?
      

The guy who wired my shop didn't leave me any slack to be able to move the outlet around on the stud. I need to move it out and down some to add the drywall.



I added a little extension and pigtailed it in with the original wire. Is this acceptable?  Is it within code?  I'll post a pic. Do I just need to rewire with a longer wire instead of the extension?  I don't know much about wiring so I appreciate any ideas.
      

I have a 4 prong 220v outlet in my garage and would like to convert it to a 3 prong outlet for my welder and compressor.



Do I just put a wire nut on the neutral and tuck it back in the box?  Then install the new 3 prong outlet using the two hots and ground?



Thanks.
      

Hi.  This is not exactly home-improvement-related, but I'm hoping some of the electrical gurus out there can answer my question.  I am building an underwater fishing light.  It will basically be a sealed green acrylic tube with LED bulbs in it, powered by a 12V DC battery.  It will be submerged between 2-5 feet.  I imagine it will be used approximately between 2-6 hours at a time, so the cable will not be submerged in water or a wet area permanently. 



Obviously I am doing this to save $$ (they are expensive otherwise), and I find myself wondering why I can't buy an inexpensive extension cord (lamp-cord-style) and use it for the power from battery to light.  I started looking at garden lighting wire, but that stuff is very expensive.



Would auto electrical wire (with shrink tubing) be sufficient (though I'm not sure I can find shrink tubing with enough length)?  Speaker wire?  LOL. 



Any suggestions would be appreciated!



Edit: One thing I forgot to mention is that I don't want the power cord to be heavy at all.  Nice and light is the key!