Welding advice

[Slugsie]

A mate of mine has just upgraded his welder, and is giving me his old one that he learnt with so that I can learn.

The thing is, he reckons it needs a 20amp supply, and that it would ideally plug into the cooker supply socket. All well and good, but I have a gas cooker! I'm pretty sure that all my sockets are going to be the standard 13amp ones.

What can I do?

[da SLUG man]

does it have a std 13a plug on it??

cos that can only have a (max) 13a fuse in it!!


any info on the unit??



it would have a round blue industrial plug rated at 16 or 32a if it was any more than 13a

[Slugsie]

Apparently it's a Clarke 240 turbo, and he may have changed the plug.

*edit*
Apparently the original plug was a standard type 3pin, but with a bigger fuse, and big enough to accommodate the heavier than normal cables.

[AndyLala]

aren't the three round pin plugs rated at 16 or 20 amps?

[da SLUG man]

aren't the three round pin plugs rated at 16 or 20 amps?

erm.... nope 16, 32a or 64a(the 16 is the one like on a caravan)

you can get 5a round pin (small, for lamps)
or 15a which is usually used in theatres and stuff.

[da SLUG man]

your best bet would be to run a short dedicated radial circuit direct from the fuseboard with the proper socket.

(like a shower or cooker circuit)

[AndyLala]

you mean this sort of thing...

[da SLUG man]

you mean this sort of thing...

nah, that's a bulgin plug (isn't it??)



this type

[joymic]

its the blue 20 amp ones u want, with a 2.5 cable strait from u mains , but u will need a R C D at the mains end, that is a must!! for your safety.

[TonyN]

its the blue 20 amp ones u want, with a 2.5 cable strait from u mains , but u will need a R C D at the mains end, that is a must!! for your safety..

My 196amp SIG mig runs off a 13amp plug at the mo, via a couple of extention leads.



Depends who much stick you want to give it.

I have more hassle with the compressor blowing its fuse when ever it tries to start up. Over Xmas I'll fit some proper wiring for the both, with a couple of sockets posistioned around the garage to save on extension leads, as its been 2 years now!

You'll be OK short term for playing, depends how reliable your garage wiring is.

[Slugsie]

Thinking about it, there is a high current spur in place for the electric shower. Not sure what AMPage it is (can't be bothered clearing a space under the stairs to look at the fuses), but it is heavy cable and runs a 10KW shower with no problems. I guess I can tap into that and just not weld whilst taking a shower.

[J_K]

I guess I can tap into that and just not weld whilst taking a shower.

Welding when your in the shower is making life very hard for yourself. Besides the rather dodgey sunburn you'd get.

I'd stick to welding whilst fully clothed mate. Makes life much easier!

And TBH I wouldn't worry about a seperate high ampage feed.

I use a large Sealey arc welder and thats on a 13amp plug. and some of the stuff I weld is 5mm box. Granted, theres a bit of M8 bar instead of a fuse but thats just so the plug doesn't melt when the fuse gets hot.

For little fabbing jobs then don't worry about it. The machines that I sometimes have to knock out are fairly large things and some of the welds take 2 3.5mm rods straight in. My plug socket hasn't melted...

If you are worried then run a spur from your consumer unit in 60amp cooker wire. You aren't actually allowed to do that in a house unless your a part P approved sparks but what the hell!!