Open Neutral
Senior Member
- Location
- Inside the Beltway
- Occupation
- Engineer
I'm helping out a friend with recommendations on the wiring of his welding/metal fabricating shop.
His well-meaning landlord has tendency to err go off-course if not told exactly what to do (*), so we'll want to control the horizontal and vertical on this.
He has a mix of single & 3ϕ 208 machines each drawing less than 20A, and wants to be able to plug them in wherever in the shop. My recommendation is L21-20P twistlock for almost all cases, specifically LEVITON 2510/2511. [AND always an adjacent quad 20A 120V box.] On the single-phase 208/240 machines, you just use one less phase. (3-1=1..right?) Then everyone has a neutral available, used or not.
But he has multiple welders; the largest 3ϕ draws 26A, but a single phase unit draws 70A. They will have but 2-3 locations in the shop [vs >12 for the L21-20's], but he wants "One kind of outlet.." for his welders.
70A is too big for twistlock, so I wonder....is there an affordable 70A+ 5 pin 208/120 crows-foot or such that is commonly used in such situations?
Or do I just tell him he must continue to use a big crowsfoot for the single phase, and say a L21-30 for the three phase ones?
* such as installing multiple L14-20's for 3ϕ use.
His well-meaning landlord has tendency to err go off-course if not told exactly what to do (*), so we'll want to control the horizontal and vertical on this.
He has a mix of single & 3ϕ 208 machines each drawing less than 20A, and wants to be able to plug them in wherever in the shop. My recommendation is L21-20P twistlock for almost all cases, specifically LEVITON 2510/2511. [AND always an adjacent quad 20A 120V box.] On the single-phase 208/240 machines, you just use one less phase. (3-1=1..right?) Then everyone has a neutral available, used or not.
But he has multiple welders; the largest 3ϕ draws 26A, but a single phase unit draws 70A. They will have but 2-3 locations in the shop [vs >12 for the L21-20's], but he wants "One kind of outlet.." for his welders.
70A is too big for twistlock, so I wonder....is there an affordable 70A+ 5 pin 208/120 crows-foot or such that is commonly used in such situations?
Or do I just tell him he must continue to use a big crowsfoot for the single phase, and say a L21-30 for the three phase ones?
* such as installing multiple L14-20's for 3ϕ use.
