Welder Receptacle Location

I bought a Lincoln ac-225-S arc welder from someone and he gave me a 30' 10/3 extension cord with it.  The specs on the welder panel call for 50 amps max input on 20% duty cycle.  Is the 10 ga. wire really sufficient for this welder?  I will also be installing a receptacle for the welder, will a 30 amp breaker on 10/3 do the job or do I need to move up to 8 ga. on 40amp or 6 ga. on 50 amp?  If I go up to a 40 or 50 amp breaker can I even use that extension cord?  I doubt I would ever weld anything thicker than 3/16" to 1/4" max.
      

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 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?
      

In most homes I've noticed that there is always a receptacle right next to the electrical panel and is usually the only thing on that circuit. 

Why is this?

And is there any reason you couldn't add additional items to that circuit, for instance, if you were finishing the basement?



Thanks in advance.
      

I am in the process of installing a submerisble pump into my well, but I have a few questions I'd like answered first.



The pump is a 1HP, 230V pump with 8.2amps and KW 0.75.  It is rated at 12/2 w/ ground. 



1) Is there any reason I shouldn't install a 230v wall mounted switch to turn this on/off if I want to kill the power.  For now a pump start will control it for my irrigation system, this would just be in addition if I ever wanted to shut things down and not have to rely on using the breaker, which I understand shouldn't be used as a switch.



2) What about installing this on a plug, so that I can plug it into a receptacle vs. hardwired.  (*I'll explain my reason later)



3) My understanding is 12gauge wire is rated for 20amp, but it looks like the owners manual calls for a 25amp fuse.  Should I use 20amp or 25amp?



*The reason I ask about the switch and the plug is because I plan on using some wiring that is already in place.  I already have 12/2 w/ground installed in the location of the pump start.  It is currently wired for 110v as it was placed there for a 3/4hp jet pump I planned on installing, but ended up going with a cased well instead, so I figure why not utilize the existing wire, but switch it to 220 instead of 110.  Basically, swap the 20amp 110v switch out for a similar rated 230v switch and replace the receptacle with a 230v receptacle and just plug this pump in. 



I question the use of the plug because I thought I had read somewhere it was ok to use one, but when unpacking the pump last night, I thought I read never to install it on a plug, so now I'm unsure.  Why would they not want it on a plug?  I guess it's not a big deal as I can always run wire into the j-box, but I hate using pigtails if I don't have to.



Thanks for any info on this...heading to the parts store in a while to grab the fuse and anything else I need.
      

If you have a 20 amp circuit going to your bathroom vanity, can you have two 20 amp receptacles on it, one a GFI receptacle and the other a standard 20 amp receptacle wired to the load terminals of the GFI receptacle ?



Or does the code require each receptacle to be a GFI on its own circuit ?



Arky
      

Hi,



Forgive me if this has been covered elsewhere - a cursory check didn't

bring up an answer, but maybe I didn't search on the right thing...



I've got to replace a baseboard heater that was located under a receptacle.



I was first thinking this is covered by the "grandfather" clause, but a bit more checking has me confused - it looks like maybe the NEC doesn't specifically prohibit this (maybe they do in the newest code book), but pretty much all manufacturers now seem to specifically say not to do this, so it would seem to be prohibited.



So what do you do?  Here's a couple of pics of where I have to put this unit:



http://www.rkgphotos.com/recent_stuf...er_corner2.jpg

http://www.rkgphotos.com/recent_stuf...er_corner1.jpg



a 1500W unit is what should go here.  just pulling the receptacle/putting on a cover plate means there's gonna be more than 12 feet between receptacles along this wall.



Its also complicated by this being both an outside wall and a common element so I didn't want to butcher it up completely.



It seemed like I could: 1) use 2 heaters with a gap under the receptacle (though the spacing kind of sucks for this), 2)pull the receptacle, put on a cover plate and forget about it (practically not a problem but violates the 12 foot rule), 3) use the receptacle box as a J box and run a line down to where the heater is and use one of those funky receptacles you mount to one end of the heater, or 4)??



Anyway, suggestions/observations would be greatly appreciated.



Thanks,

rkg

(Richard George)
      

Hello.



I recently purchased a home that has a a new grounded breaker panel but none of the outlets themselves are grounded save the hvac system in the basement. I had an electrician come and he said the fastest way to get it done is to switch the appropriate breakers to GFCI breakers in my service box and then I can change the outlets and then just put the stickers that say ungrounded etc on the new 3 prong receptacles. he called the inspector to double check and the inspector told him that he can't do it this way but he needs to find the first outlet in the loop from each breaker line and change that receptacle to a gfci and then we can change each receptacle to 3 prong in that loop.



Wouldn't just changing the breaker do the same thing? also if I did just install a Gfci receptacle on the first outlet in the loop, if it breaks wouldn't the rest of the outlets behind that gfci not function until I replaced the Gfci outlet where as a breaker would just pop and I can simply go turn it back on?



Just wanted to get some opinion from the experts as I'm willing to spend more on doing gfci breakers and am confused as to why the inspector suggested the way he did



Thanks for any help!
      

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.
      

Hello!



In a house I recently bought I have a strange situation.



There is a three way switch on one side of the wall with two sets of wires coming in:



Red, Black, White

Black, White



and then one stray Black that goes to the duplex receptacle on the other side of the wall (on the OUTSIDE of the wall!  Clearly an afterthought.)



Into the receptacle goes this strange black single wire from the light switch and the usual black and white wires + ground wire.



I went to change the ugly receptacle to a decora and now it doesn't work, though I'm not 100% sure it worked before.



I've wired the new receptacle as I remember it being wired before, any idea what is wrong? 



I've attached a diagram!



Thanks in advance for any input.