I have a question for an electrician?????????

[12 pointer]

ok here is my deal. In my basement, I have a kitchen that I do not use. So, to get power for my welder in my garage, I bought some 8/2 wire, drilled a hole through the upper part of the wall, and through conduit, I ran that wire out to the garage and installed a female box to plug my welder in. inside the house, the 8/2 is plugged into the outet for the stove which is on a 60 amp 220 breaker. my welder requires 47.5 amps to run. has worked great for 2 years with no problem. the lenth of the 8/2 was adequate for the distance that I was running to the garage. Now, here is what I want to do. I want to install a breaker bok in the garage with 1 60 amp to run my welder, 1 40 amp 110 to run my camper when at home to make sure all is in working order. (only using one leg of a 220 breaker to do so) and 4 20 amp to run lights and some outlets. will the 8/2 still handle this. this may be simple for somone who has done this alot but I have been told the 8/2 would get hot and I don't see why. If I were welding, all I would be using were the lights. If I were using a saw, I would not be running the welder. see what I mean? let me know what you guys think and give me examples of what you have done. thanks, Mike

[Crockett]

I'm not a licensed electrician but I've had to take all of the standard electrical engineering courses in college and have done my fair share of wiring.

According to this chart: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_wire_gauge
it looks like 8 gauge wire can handle 40 amps. As long as you have the propery circuit breaker and proper gauge wire you should have anything to worry about putting a new breaker in your garage off of this wire. Since the main breaker in the house would still be the limiting factor. The main load would still come from the 8/2 wire running from the house so if you had your breaker in the garage wired so that you could possibly run both your welder and your camper at the same time the house breaker would still shut it off if it was pulling more amps than that breaker allowed.

It would kind of be like trying to run a fire hose off of a standard house faucet. The house faucet is already limiting the amout of water that can make it out of the fire house so no matter how big your hose is it won't increase the amount of water that you can draw.

[yote hunter]

i am a licensed electrician and it would work if you didnt use the welder at the same times as the camper but you are short one wire to get 110 you need a nuetral wire.

[12 pointer]

i am a licensed electrician and it would work if you didnt use the welder at the same times as the camper but you are short one wire to get 110 you need a nuetral wire.

I guess I am a little lost on the 8/2. does that mean there is only 2 wires there? If so, then I must have 8/3? because I have a black, a white and a naked wire. thats naked is my ground then right? When I hoked up my outlets to a 20 amp 110, I put my black on the breaker and the white and the naked on the ground bar. (if thats what you call it). seems to be ok so far. where am I missing a wire? thanks alot guys.

[chuckf]

mike, call me at 502-249-0515 and i'll walk you thru it.

[MsgMills]

I'm glad you guys are helping Crocket on this one, would havehated for his house to catch on fire of he possibly get hurt....:)

[Valley Station]

What kind of cable, UF ( underground) or NM ( Romex)?? UF -#8AWG rated 40 amp. NM #8AWG rated 50 amp.

[th5isback5]

8/2 is a hot,neutral and a ground, 8/3 is a hot, neutral, ground and a travler. It's usally red in color

[NonTyp]

Sounds like a melt-down on a stick! Nothing you've done meets code! Making it work and meeting code is two different things though, you won't need an inspection. Your welder already exceeds the max amp capacity of your wire (8/2). If someone don't help you pm me.

[12 pointer]

What kind of cable, UF ( underground) or NM ( Romex)?? UF -#8AWG rated 40 amp. NM #8AWG rated 50 amp.

it is non-metalic #8. and I was mistaking. it is coming off a 50 amp. breaker, NOT a 60amp. thanks guys

[Valley Station]

If your welder draws 47.5 amps, to meet Code, the wire for it alone should based on 47.5amps x 1.25% = 59.38 amps. #6 AWG.