Extend welding leads is it ok?

BurnBern · BBQ Fan Joined: 17 Jul 2015 Posts: 149 Location: UK

Hi
I'm not a welder and this is my first time welding.

I have a 240v - 200amp welder. But the he issue is that the leads seem too short. They are 6' long so I have to move the welder all the time. This gets very irritating as I have to stop the weld because I have move the welder or its pulling on the leads causing me to weld skew. The leads are 25mm2 copper.

If I extended the leads would this affect the voltage at the welding end. I want to extend them to 16'. I would rather extend the welding leads than the power lead.
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Jim38344 · Posted: Mon Nov 30 15 6:09 am Post subject:

I'm not a welder either, but that's a good plan you have going on. I extended mine about that much with no problems. Your local welding supply shop should be able to fix you right up with the pieces to get it done. Smile

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BurnBern · BBQ Fan Joined: 17 Jul 2015 Posts: 149 Location: UK

Thanks Jim also did you have to turn up the setting on your
welder after you made the changes.
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k.a.m. · Posted: Mon Nov 30 15 7:09 am Post subject:

Are you wanting to make your leads a total of 16' or add 16' to the already 6'? You have to remember if your welder is factory installed with #4 cable adding longer heavier cable to the smaller will tax the machine if you go too far. I run 8' of work cable on my Miller 225 with a 20' for my stinger and that is pushing it.
My advice is keep your work cable as short as you can get by with and extend your stinger cable.
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BurnBern · BBQ Fan Joined: 17 Jul 2015 Posts: 149 Location: UK

Hi K.A.M thanks for your reply.

What I want to do is extend the earth by joining, to it with the correct dinse fittings, the would be now redundant live cable so it will be 12' to save costs l( or should I buy a new single cable also 16' ). The new live will be a new single cable that will be 16'. The cable will be the same diameter as already on the welder.

What is #4 cable not sure what it is or stringer?

I want to do this because the welder gets dragged and tips over because the cables are short. Otherwise I have to keep it on my workbench and it takes up valuable work space and every time I grind I have to take it off the bench and its now a pain to keep doing that. It's driving me nuts.
Thanks again Bern
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k.a.m. · Posted: Mon Nov 30 15 9:11 am Post subject:

What type machine are you running Burnbern?
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Maniac · BBQ Super Pro Joined: 02 Oct 2010 Posts: 2431 Location: Pa

What is #4 cable not sure what it is or stringer?
BurnBern #4 is the thickness of KAM's welding cable. and the stinger is the one you put the electrode in. What he did is keep the ground (earth) short and extended the stinger (electrode cable).
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BurnBern · BBQ Fan Joined: 17 Jul 2015 Posts: 149 Location: UK

k.a.m. · Posted: Mon Nov 30 15 10:23 pm Post subject:

With out knowing the specifics of the machine ( I did a search for it but no info) I would rather extend the power cord than chance hurting the machine by extending the cables. If you decide to extend the cables I would only extend the electrode cable and make sure it is the same size cable.
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gandrfab · Posted: Mon Nov 30 15 10:28 pm Post subject:

I stick welded on a metal building with a 200' lead.
Worked just fine coming off a welder generator.

k.a.m. · Posted: Mon Nov 30 15 11:22 pm Post subject:

Maniac · BBQ Super Pro Joined: 02 Oct 2010 Posts: 2431 Location: Pa

BurnBern You can tig weld with this machine...you have to buy a tig tourch for scratch start tig.
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dwilliams35 · BBQ Fan Joined: 17 Mar 2010 Posts: 135

It's just electricity: what you run into is voltage drop. Simply put, for X voltage and Y amperage, you are limited to Z length for any given size wire. Upsize the wire (or turn down the amps), and the permissible Z will go up accordingly. You could run it a very long way if you have very big cables. I had #4's on my stick welder and ran into the same problem: 15' or so leads just weren't enough. I went to #2 leads, all the way back to the lug, and I've got 50' leads on there now, no problem.

If you are running well under the max amperage, you could realistically use the same size wire and just extend it.

BurnBern · BBQ Fan Joined: 17 Jul 2015 Posts: 149 Location: UK

Thanks to all for the help. Just an update I did extend the leads as I said and it works brilliantly. I don't have to keep moving the welder every time I change positions to weld. What a pain that was! Very Happy

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k.a.m. · Posted: Thu Dec 31 15 10:12 pm Post subject:

Glad it worked out BurnBern. Very Happy

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