Can I run this arc welder at home?

[Zero Signal]

I was looking into SMAW welders and found a pretty inexpensive stick welder at sears (Hobart Stickmate 205AC ) The manual says it draws 47.5 amps at 230 volts.

To run that I would need a converter like one of these right? If not, I was thinking I could possibly hook it up to the washer/dryer outlets or maybe the AC condenser power but I would like to find out what I need to do before buying something. Sears has a wire feed (MIG) welder alittle cheaper that they say runs off standard 115V but I've been bent on a stick welder.

Do any of you guys run an arc welder off house power?

 

[OrangeMustangGt]

Im an electrician.
If your house has 220(most do) then you can run it.
Do you have a dryer, a range, electric water heater? Those run off of 220....when i say 220....thats a universal voltage saying, meaning that welder will most likely run off 220~240v. you dont need to be exact on most things.
What you have to do is get a receptacle near where you will be running the welder, because im sure that the cord isn't over 6'.....Eaither hire an electricain or make sure you do it right...But you will have to take the plug off the welder, or find what amperage plug is on it, and get corresponding receplacle, wire, and breaker.

Now, if that welder in sears is like my lioncon 115v that i bought at home depot, i highly reccomend it, and it can weld some beefy metal even with the flux core.

 

[Zero Signal]

Yeah I'm thinking I might go with a wire feed. The Lincoln Elec. wire feed ones seem pretty decent. I'd want to run flux cored as you mention and I want to be able to make up to 3/16" fillet welds basically. That should be good up to 1/4" or 5/16" plate (maybe 3/8" plate, but thats pushing it) and cover just about anything I would need or be willing to weld myself. I can't imagine anything on the car that would require more than that.

 

[Black95GTS]

It depends on your breaker. I don't know how much a drier draws, but I don't think they're that much??? Aren't they usually around 12-18 amps? I could be totally wrong.

While I don't work with secondaries too much at work (power engineer) I think you're going to need to beef up your breaker. If I'm right, you're going to draw about 2-3 times as much juice as you normally would and most likely trip out that breaker real quick.

A certified electrician could easily set you up to run this, what that would cost GreenMustangGT would better be able to tell you.

You also might want to tell the power company you plan to draw that much. Last week we ran into this problem where a guy had a really nice metal shop in his barn but was drawing 104 AMPS!!! for 1 service! The transformer was glowing red trying to source that much current. We had to take it down and put up a bigger can. Big PITA.

 

[ROLLIN5.0]

Every house in the United States that has electricity has 240. It is dropped to 240V at the pole, and sent into your house, where it is split into two sources of 120V. You are going to have a problem with that current load. You don't have a breaker set up to run that hot, and will probably need to set-up a new outlet with more industrial sized wire than what is feeding your appliances. It can be done though.
Brandon

 

[Zero Signal]

Yep, I'm definitely going with a 115V wire feed now, lol.