What gauge to wire a 50 amp line?

[jtybt]

I have a 20 amp 220 for my small welders but decided I might as well run a 50 amp along side. It's just a 25' run from the service box. I have plenty of 12/2 romex around but wasn't sure what would be appropriate for a 50 amp line.

TIA


P.S.
I now have a 225LX and waiting for a PP50

[Ray]

Technically 12 Ga. will handle 50 amps, but I would go with at least 10Ga.
Here’s a link to calculate minimum conductor sizing.
http://www.elec-toolbox.com/calculators/voltdrop.htm

[rinktumbody]

I have a 20 amp 220 for my small welders but decided I might as well run a 50 amp along side. It's just a 25' run from the service box. I have plenty of 12/2 romex around but wasn't sure what would be appropriate for a 50 amp line.

TIA


P.S.
I now have a 225LX and waiting for a PP50

At Home Depot today I bought 4-conductor 10 gauge, recommended by the salesperson. It was about $2.00 per foot.

[jtybt]

$2.00 a ft! OUCH.

To complicate matters, I have a 10 Ga 25' extension cord putting total run at 50' so I presume 10 Ga Romex is much better.

What is the fourth wire for? Ground? I have a Leviton 50 amp dryer plug with no ground.

[Steveg]

You should run 6 ga. wire for a 50 amp circuit.

sg

[performance]

I agree, especially any distance from the panel box.

[jtybt]

What would be the amp draw of the 225LX or the PP50...not being used at the same time.

The calculator link said 10 ga up to 50'. I measured the actual run, 24'.

Electrician at HD said the line and breaker should be matched to the unit being used.

Actually sounds to me that it's OK to used larger gauge wire as well as plugs and receptacles as long as the breaker matches the 'appliance' being used?????

[rinktumbody]

$2.00 a ft! OUCH.

To complicate matters, I have a 10 Ga 25' extension cord putting total run at 50' so I presume 10 Ga Romex is much better.

What is the fourth wire for? Ground? I have a Leviton 50 amp dryer plug with no ground.

One wire is ground (green), one is white (neutral), one is red (hot) and the other is black (hot). Good luck!

[performance]

You could wire color for color and trim the red wire or other color wire, whatever color it may be. Just be sure to hook up the green ground wire to the middle round post. The 4th wire is considered a safety ground. If you will observe in some true NEMA welder type plug connections, there are actual wire colors printed on the plug itself, showing you what color to use. They all say black and white for the two hot legs and green for ground. I would not use the red if this is an extension type plug, just use the colors that are used in the welder if it terminates into a male plug and not directly into the panel box.

[jtybt]

Turns out I already had 10/2 with a 20 amp breaker. Upgraded to 40 amp breaker and 50 amp plugs/receptacles.

[shawn]

i really hope your not saying your gonna try and run 40 amps through 10 ga wire. if so i hope you have a good house insurance policy. for a 40 amp breaker you should be running atleast #8 and for a 50 you should be running a #6 otherwise you will be getting that wire red hot when pulling a max load and too many hot cold cycles will make the insulation melt off and crack and eventually creating a short in the walls or whereever the wires run which will in turn eventually burn your house down.

i've been an electrician for 17 years now and have seen people do this waay too many times for my own comfort and wonder why heir house burnt down or why their equipment burns up. the problem with running a smaller gauge wire for a larger circuit is it won't flow as well as the larger wire which in turn causes more resistance. the resistance in the wire makes the welder work harder to accomplish the same thing because it's not getting what it needs to do the job.

picture a 2" water line being used to fill a swimming pool now put a section of 1/2" at the end of that 2" line. your basically doing that same thing by using a wire that's too small for the load. your connection at the breaker are gonna heat up, the wire itself is gonna heat up, and your welder is gonna heat up because of all the effort it's putting into trying to get what it needs. somewhere something is gonna fail. most of the time it's the it's the appliance trying to be used but the other times it's either the wire or the breaker and either 1 of those are very adept at starting a fire

[shawn]

oh and by the way read the sentence at the top of the page of that link. he tells you his calculations aren't up to code and to reference the nec to make sure he's right

[bigjoeinkg]

Checked the price today for the 6AWG/2. Lowes had the cheapest price. HD was over $3/ft. I will be running the #6 to my 50A outlet. Copper prices are getting up. Who would thought that copper would follow gold and silver as a precious metal.

[Tritium]

China is thinking about backing their currency with copper. If that happens watch out, old pennies (the solid copper ones) will be like dimes or better. I had a shop fire 10 years ago and finally am getting around to cleanup of the copper (welders, wiring, cable etc.) I took it to the metals recyclers Tuesday and got $344 for 106 lbs of badly burned copper. I just finished putting in a new 50A circuit for my Lincoln Tombstone AC welder yesterday. Luckily I had just enough #6 left over from a few years back at 50 cents a foot.

Thurmond