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I am wanting to put in a 220 outlet with a 40amp breaker for the plasma cutter. I see that a 40 amp breaker should take 8 guage wire in the panel. Is the cord on the plasma cutter sufficient for the 40 amp breaker? It seems to be a small diameter cord. Please let me know if I may have to change out the cord as well. Thanks
No you will not have to change the cord. And I would go to a 50a breaker as well.
First off, hire an electrician if you need to ask questions on wiring anything.
That said.
The length of the power cord on that unit is not long (say 8 feet) and it will carry the 30 amps that distance with no problem.
Specs in a home are different as the wires from the panel might be 100 or more feet long to the "outlet". You just need to make sure you have the amps at the "outlet".
The Imax is listed on the back of the machine, that's the maximum current it will pull at 220 volts AC from the "outlet" (the breaker size needed). So if it's 30 amps or less, you can get by with a 30 amp breaker.
The max cutting power is 50 amps at the torch on your unit, but it's not 220 volts at the torch. We drop the voltage to get the higher amperage to the cutting torch.
If you have a 40 amp breaker you're fine and our cord is fine as well.
The codes for a house, say it is #10 for 30 amps. That assumes a long cord/wire with loss, not a 10 foot piece of wire.
The NEC has set forth guidelines for wiring duty cycle limited machines. The duty cycle determines as much about the requirement as the amp requirement does.
When switching over to 220 from 110 do you have to rewire anything in the machine or does it automatically detect the 220V. Thanks for all your help you guys.
Nothing inside to do. Just get the ground on ground, and wire the two other wires to the two hot legs and you're good to go.
220vac is the only way to go. You will like the power.
On 220v Machines, the input current in the manual and on this website is correct. My 60 shows 50amps to produce a 60 amp output.
However, when you're sizing your wire that is a bit misleading because what it really means is that in 220v operation (the 60 only runs on 220) each leg (L1/L2) or phase (more correct), only requires 25 amps. In a 220v circuit wired to U.S. standards you would use a dual breaker with a single throw bar rated at 30 amps and 10 gauge wire is adequate for this application.
A 100' 10 gauge stranded wire extension cord is also rated at 30amps max even though 10 gauge stranded is rated to 40 amps. This is because the resistance of wire is directly proportional to it's length and cross sectional diameter. The longer the wire the more resistance, resitance is work and more work means higher current requirements to accomplish the task of producing the same amount of power. That's a loose translation of the acutal process but I think you'll get the idea.