Plug it into your 50A outlet and weld. Nothing bad will happen.
The 50A breaker is there to protect your house from overcurrent
heating and resultant fire. Your little MIG welder won't even
warm up 4 gage wire a touch.

Copper, solid, stranded, no big deal. Stranded is easier to pull
and (sometimes) to connect, that's all.

Grant Erwin

Mark wrote:

I've never welded anything before but always had the interest to
tinker around with metal building stuff so I finally bought a MIG
welder yesterday. Through various friends' input who work in the
sheet metal industry and research on the web I decided on a new
millermatic 175 that I got at local welding supply store for $625.

I still have to wire in my outlet for it and was reading the owner's
manual. It says the input voltage is 230, input amps at rated output
is 20, Max recommended circuit breaker in amperes is 20, Minimum input
conductor size in AWG is 14, minimum grounding conductor in AWG is 12.

I'm not an electrician but I have wired up my electrical box in my
garage but doesn't a 20 amp breaker on a welder seem low? The outlet
is a 50 amp outlet and I had planned on running 4AWG wire to it with a
50 amp double pole circuit breaker switch. Can this still be used
without doing any damage to the welder?

Also, the 4AWG wire I have is solid copper instead of stranded. Is
one better than the other?