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Thread: welding lead length
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26th March 2015, 10:12 PM #1Senior Member
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welding lead length
gday.
Are work/ground cables and electrode cables usually supplied and fitted with similar lengths?,
or can you get away with having shorter work/earth cable from your experience I wonder?
At 12$ a metre for 35 mm cable, I'd like to know what I can get away with and not compromise usefulness .
regards
meadow
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26th March 2015, 10:30 PM #2Senior Member
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I found bob to be cheaper for cables
http://www.bobthewelder.com.au/home.php?cat=581
good luck
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26th March 2015, 10:55 PM #3GOLD MEMBER
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I've always found that no matter what length you've got it's never long enough. The minimum I'd go for on the return lead is 2.4m, for the welding lead minimum for me would be 4 metres. Depending on the size welder, it can be lifted up on to a table or similar if the return lead is to short or a 25 X 3 flat bar can be substituted, but a welding lead can't be substituted for extra length, unless you've a set of jumper leads that are made from welding cable. I have 2 sets for my stick, 1.8 and 3 for the return, 2.4 and 6 for the welding lead.
Kryn
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27th March 2015, 08:15 AM #4Senior Member
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I have a 2M return lead with a dinse connector, made an extension of another 4M so I can get out the door when needed. Seems to work well for me, If I recall, I'm using 25mm cable
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27th March 2015, 08:35 AM #5Intermediate Member
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Never long enough
As previous poster KB mentioned at times you sometimes find a longer cable than you have is required. I managed to get some cheaper 300+ Amp cable last year off eBay so I made up some extra leads. The longest electrode lead I made was 10 metres long which I used only yesterday welding some brackets on my shed which meant I didn't need to move the welder. The original welder earth lead was used because I could connect onto a part of the steel frame nearby.
Long leads are cumbersome to move around so the shorter leads supplied with a welder are what I use normally.
If you have a small caddy type welder which is lightweight then it is easier to take the welder to the job if a power supply is available nearby.
Many older transformer welders had lug connectors secured with a large nut to the welding outlets but most newer welders have Dinse type connectors with different sizes but new connectors and adaptors are available from "Bob The Welder" and other suppliers if you manage to find some cheap used cables without the right connectors.
If you are going to use your welder only in one location and bring the work to the welder then 2 metre long cables would probably be ok.
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27th March 2015, 11:05 AM #6Cheers.
Vernon.
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Bite off more than you can chew and then chew like crazy.
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27th March 2015, 08:35 PM #7Tool addict
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As you can gather, you can make the leads any length you want.
Heck, if you were in a pinch, you can use any collection of conductive elements to form an earth lead (I once made a 20m earth by connecting reo cages with random bar), so if money is an issue, you could make a short earth if for placing the welder by that point, and a long work lead to get around the job. Or you could fall into a job where you rescue a caddy welder they were going to blithely throw away w/ associated leads, and end up with cables that each weigh more than the machine
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27th March 2015, 08:59 PM #8Senior Member
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If I recall there is a max length you can use, been looking for a metric version, all I can get at this stage is this one
http://www.directwireusa.com/Resourc...UIDE%20rev.pdf
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28th March 2015, 10:36 AM #9GOLD MEMBER
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Going back a year or two, long leads were the standard on site as the universally used Lincoln AS 400 was neither quiet, nor portable, thus placing it in a central location and running long leads to where ever needed was the best solution. Handbag sized inverters have now become more common and due to their portability, 3 or 4M leads are ample in most cases.
Lead length is primarily governed by amperage required, duty cycle and cross sectional area. If realy long leads are required, then it is best to do the run in two stages, with the main run in a suitably heavy section and the last few metres in a thinner section that is more easily handled by the welder - welding out of position with 95mm2 leads is not pleasant at all.
One of my pet hates is mig welders with portable wire feeders where the earth lead is only 3 or so metres. Absolutely frustrating. At some point you will want to reach out to the full extent of the travelling feeder.
In answer to the original question, my preference is for work and return leads of the same length and for transformer based power supplies for the average back yarder/farmer, I would think that 10 ish metres of 35mm2 or even 50mm2 if you run a lot of big electrodes or gouge, would be a good compromise.
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28th March 2015, 02:34 PM #10SENIOR MEMBER
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Apart from some being small enough to hang over your shoulder, inverter welders should also deal better with resistance losses in long leads, as they sense the output current and will increase the output as needed to maintain the specified current.
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28th March 2015, 04:37 PM #11GOLD MEMBER
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They certainly handle generators and mains extension leads better than transformer units. Theoretically, if the welding leads are suitably heavy, there shouldn't be enough resistance loss to bother you too much. When using serious amperages such as heavy gouging or hand held submerged arc, (once somewhat common on large jobs, but rarely seen now), they would often utilise a dual run of 95 or 120MM2 cable to get the required current capacity.
The most overlooked aspect of welding leads would probably be the terminations and earth clamp. Any connection that gets hot during use needs rectification and any mild steel or zinc plated washers or nuts should be replaced with brass versions. Secondly, while less convenient, screw type earth clamps give much more positive contact than magnetic or spring loaded clamps, particularly as amperages increase. Lugs should be properly crimped to clean wire.
I believe dodgy connections give far more grief than voltage drop from long leads will. Anyone who has ever grabbed a hot earth clamp caused by poor electrical contact will know what I am talking about
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