My comment was to point out that the current from the service panel was not
passing through the welder's output leads.

A contact between service power and earth ground would be deadly.

The welder's transformer in a common AC welder isolates the utility current
(while at the same time decreasing the input voltage, and increasing the
output current capacity).
The output leads are floating and isolated.. although there is a very slight
leakage current in almost any transformer insulation, typically measured in
microamps.

A side note about transformer leakage.. when you see a transformer marked Hi
Pot, it's indicating that the transformer has passed a high voltage
potential test to insure that the leakage (between input and output) is
within safe limits.

WB
..............

"larry g" wrote in message
...
Bill
If the utility system is not providing the current to accomplish the
welding
process, who is?
lg
no neat sig line

"Wild Bill" wrote in message
...
What's in this welder described below, a couple of resistors?

Everyone had better hope that utility system current is not passing
through
the welder's output leads.

Obviously it is not.

WB
..............



"Grant Erwin" wrote in message
...

Current flows out of one leg, through the welder, through the work,
back
through
the welder's ground lead, and back through the other leg. Yes, the
current
flows
in both legs. A little buzzbox stick welder can draw 41 amps at 240VAC.
The part
you didn't mention is how many amps your welder can weld with. Let's
suppose
it's 250 amps at 25 volts AC. Power is volts times amps, so that's
delivered
power of 6250 watts. Let's assume your welder's transformer is 20%
lossy,
so
we'll divide 6250 by 0.8 and get 7812 watts of input power. To
calculate
the
current needed from a 220V plug, divide 7812 by 220 to get 35 amps. So
you
can
see that 41 amps at 220 is not unreasonable. You can almost certainly
get
by
with a 30 amp breaker. If you pulled wire that's too small for a 40 amp
breaker
(did you use 8 gauge wire or 10 gauge wire?) then it may be prudent to
downsize
the breaker to 30 amps. By the way, I have a little buzzbox welder, and
I
run it
through a 30 amp breaker and about 15 feet of conduit and a receptacle,
and I
used no. 10 wire. I never ever turn my welder all the way up, or at
least
I
haven't yet, so this setup is fine for the little buzzbox.

Grant




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