No, I'm not that stupid. I did however get burned on an eBay deal. I received a "Heavy Duty" 50' cord with Nema 6-50 ends made with 12/3 stranded cable. #facepalm
I was able to return it, and have since replaced it with an 8/3 cable. However the seller contacts me today seemingly confused about why I left negative feedback due to poor description.
Really?
So, let's see how many people comment telling me how dangerous it is without reading the OP.
It is all about the amp's 
I think there is actually an exemption in the National Electrical Code that lets you permanently install a 50 amp dedicated welder outlet on a 50 amp breaker, fed by regular old 12/2 romex. The low duty cycle of the welder at higher settings prevents the wire from overheating.
That said I'd be pissed too if I got a 12 gauge extension cord with 6-50 ends on it with no disclosure about the light duty wire.
BrokenYugo wrote: I think there is actually an exemption in the National Electrical Code that lets you permanently install a 50 amp dedicated welder outlet on a 50 amp breaker, fed by regular old 12/2 romex. The low duty cycle of the welder at higher settings prevents the wire from overheating. That said I'd be pissed too if I got a 12 gauge extension cord with 6-50 ends on it with no disclosure about the light duty wire.
I had looked up derating wire based on duty cycle, but for a 50a machine it would have to have a really low duty cycle. Also, I'd rather not be limited by such marginal wiring.
Apparently the manufacturer of the 12/3 cord also makes welders. They look like HF quality, but offer a "200 amp" TIG that has an advertised max draw of 20a @220v. Which just doesn't seem right...
Man, it's been so long since I sold electrical, but most low voltage cable is rated to 600v, IIRC (so, I think it really is about the amps...).
That said, i thought welding wire had different requirements. There's got to be something in NEC about that, right (man, do I even have the acronym right for "national" electrical codes - shoot...)?
In reply to Crackers:
Well, it's got to be less than 10% duty cycle then...
Fun fact: My alma matter has a laser that when running is something like 21 terawatts (kilowatt, megawatt, gigawatt, terawatts, 21 tw is higher electricity consumption than the entire united states), but it's duty cycle was 1x10 to the negative 15 power. So for each second, the laser was actually on for .000000000000001 second.
It's not even the biggest laser. There are apparently lasers running 2-3 orders of magnitude more power than 21 tw.
Robbie wrote: In reply to Crackers: Well, it's got to be less than 10% duty cycle then...
Yeah, that's pretty much useless for a welder.
Fun fact: My alma matter has a laser that when running is something like 21 terawatts (kilowatt, megawatt, gigawatt, terawatts, 21 tw is higher electricity consumption than the entire united states), but it's duty cycle was 1x10 to the negative 15 power. So for each second, the laser was actually on for .000000000000001 second. It's not even the biggest laser. There are apparently lasers running 2-3 orders of magnitude more power than 21 tw.
I love trivia like this, my GF on the other hand seems annoyed talking about power consumption vs duty cycles of high powered lasers.
Go figure...
What was the lazer used for? I'm curious how often it pulsed per second.
I'm always amazed when wiring a large commercial piece of equipment. Especially air conditioning stuff. The NEC calls for large gauge wiring for the electrician (me) , but you look at the stuff that the factory wires up, and it's such small gauge. It's amazing what the manufacturer can get away with.
Smart move returning the extension cord.
Chris
The laser would only fire once per second. They used it for literally pulverizing really small stuff.
Like you could literally make 400-600 atoms disappear.
Not that they actually disappeared of course, but they turned them into something else I think.
They had a separate one that a grad student was using as a filter of sorts in a blood vein. By selectively hitting a cell with a laser you could control the cell's path (if you have a big tube going into 4 small tubes, the laser can direct the blood cell into the tube you designate). That one seemed much cooler to me.
Edit: my wife has a rule that I cannot talk to her about math after 9pm.
Mazdax605 wrote: I'm always amazed when wiring a large commercial piece of equipment. Especially air conditioning stuff. The NEC calls for large gauge wiring for the electrician (me) , but you look at the stuff that the factory wires up, and it's such small gauge. It's amazing what the manufacturer can get away with. Smart move returning the extension cord. Chris
I agree completely. But most of that stuff has a UL or CE listing on it, so someone decided it was ok.
IIRC welding cable is a different animal than standard SO type extension cord. Welding cable has more strands packed into the same wire size, so it has a higher ampacity than SO.
More strands in the same size does not give more amp carrying capacity. It gives more flexibility. Cross section is cross section. However, he is talking about the supply side of the welder, not the welding side, for his extension cord.
Looking at teh maths on the 200 amp welder, 20 amps at 220V is 4400 watts. If it is 200 amps, that's 22V at the TIG torch. That's probably reasonable.
Totally make your own extension cord. Buy the appropriate cable by the foot. Buy the proper rated plug and receptacle. Put together. Done.
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