Electrical requirements help needed

[Naiveambition]

Trying to pick correct equipment needed to wire my garage for 220v.
Granted the mill and welder won't be used at the same time.

Tools:
Zx 45 mill. 220 v 17/ 8.5 amp

Miller welder. Mig tig. 230 v. 150 amps at 26% Vdc
30% duty cycle

Air compressor 110v

Plus 3 other outlets scattered around

Question one?. Is 60 amp 4 space load center enough? Or will I need to clear the amps on the welder at 150? What load center do I need?

Question two?. Will I need a safety switch

Question three? I will be tapping into the main breaker box for the house and running a new main wire about 50 feet to garage. Do you bypass the fuses at the main and place them in garage. ? The red line in the photo is my ?.

I will hire electrician to hook up, but I want all installed ready to hookup when he comes.

 

[Tin Falcon]

I will hire electrician to hook up, but I want all installed ready to hookup when he comes.

Well I suggest you run your plans by your electrician and let him advise you on how to rough in the wiring.

The most your welder shroud draw should be less than 30 amps.
Take your welder manual to you electrician and decide if you need a 20 amp or 30 amp circuit for the welder.

A 60 amp box will likely work. you want room for expandability also you need to consider what is the amperage of the main breaker into your house .

If you are not confident and knowledgeable enough to do this on your own let the pros help and save the heartache.

Tin

 

[Wizard69]

You really need to hire an electrician. Second you need to consider all loads possible including lighting and HVAC loads. If the electrician is smart he will install a feeder to a sub panel (probably a 90-100 amp panel). This would allow easy future additions if needed.

 

[bazmak]

The cost increase is minor to install more that you need at this time
Its very expensive if you want more later.Been there done it
Think future,find the sparky and discuss,if he is only making the final connections and supplying parts listen to him Regards barry

 

[Tin Falcon]

Also what do you mean buy safety switch? I have seen on TV IIRC one of the woodworking shows where the machine breakers are wired through a key swtich to prevent unauthorized use of power tools by kids. Also some tools come with I guess contattors that prevent the tools from restarting in case of power outage they start when you hit the start switch.
Also a good idea to have lighting on a separate circuit if you blow a breaker with the tools you are not in the dark . and if you pan on running a extension outside you want a gfci to plug into. lots to think about.
Tin

 

[ShopShoe]

I also think you need professional advice.

More things I see that you have not considered:

What is the distance from main panel to your new panel location? (In feet of wire used, not just "as the crow flies.")

Not only your main panel main circuit breaker rating, but what size wire serves that main panel?

It is not advisable to put in a "220V outlet" and swap plugs for 220 Volt devices, like your welder and mill. Each should have a circuit, even if they're not on at the same time.

Your air compressor probably needs a circuit of its own, because it may have a high starting current.

Not sure what you mean by "safety switch," but if you are talking about being able to disconnect a machine with a switch and it is not real close to your breaker panel, then a switch "within arm's reach" of the machine is a good idea and may be required by code in your area.

"3 other outlets scattered around" seems to be less than what you would want in a shop. You may want more than one circuit for general use. I am also a fan of having a circuit dedicated to overhead lights, then circuits for outlets so if a machine trips a breaker, you are not in the dark. GFCIs are required.

There are some additional grounding requirements involved in what you want to do and local practice may apply to your situation.

If you want to do this yourself, there are certainly many sources for information available to you, but you need to put in some time for study and planning/estimating.

If it seems that we are being cautious with our advice, it is because codes and practices differ from place to place and there is no one way to do this. If you wish to proceed, go ahead, but be careful. Keep asking questions and we'll do our best to answer, but our advice is only advice and not a set of plans.

Best of luck,

--ShopShoe

 

[Naiveambition]

Thanx for all the advise, I agree with all of it. Although let me clarify that what Iam doing is buying all the equipment. I need to do this job in steps and the cheapest way possible. So I plan to install meaning dig the line , mount the boxes, get my conduit ready, but not the physical connections. I have a pretty good idea of what's needed, I'm just lost on the breaker panel.

They have two styles bein fused and non fused. When I'm thinking of how he's going to hookup at the main house breaker, if It runs through a breaker , then to the garage to a fused breaker panel, I have two sets of breakers on the line.

Whereas, if it doesn't run thru a breaker at the main, then a fused box in the garage makes sense. Again this is about buying equiptment. Money wasted if I have the wrong ones. I don't want to pay for electrician to come twice.

The rest of garage is wired thru the house. What we are trying to accomplish is a single line that is used for 220v. Mainly for the milling machine, but will also need the welder at times. The three 110v outlets are adding to the already installed ones, and yes all gfci. My plan is to bury a dedicated 220v and a 110v wire in the ground just to be sure.

 

[RonGinger]

I hope you dont literally mean 'fused' I would never install fuses today- I am not even sure you can buy fuse panels anymore. Circuit breakers are the only way to go.

 

[rodw]

We only have 240v to worry about. I have a 40 amp breaker in the house fuse box and a single heavy cable to the shed that feeds a sub board In the shed. Despite using really heavy cable, 40A was the maximum to stay within the electrical code. There are 6 circuits each with their own Breaker/Earth Leakage safety switch. The old wiring has been disconnected. Details in Rods Aussie Shed thread.

You really need to set your bill of materials in conjunction with your electrician. You probably won't save much by sourcing your own equipment elsewhere.

 

[ShopShoe]

Naiveambition,

I still believe you need help planning this. There are many local variations that make advice we give only half-right.

As regards your main concern:

"I don't want to pay for electrician to come twice."

I think that many of them will come out to talk through your project and give an estimate before starting work. You can also ask for estimates based on doing it two or three different ways. You can certainly find out if you can do anything yourself to save money (such as digging a trench). I know sometimes that is not possible, but it doesn't hurt to ask and you can also get more than one contractor to give you quotations.

I think most contractors aren't out to make obscene profits on selling materials, so doing your own shopping may not save a whole lot of money. I have also found that some will let you buy things yourself, as long as you both agree what is needed: You may have to work through their supplier, but the "warehouse guys" are usually very helpful in that they know their stock more comprehensively than the people at the home center.

You really don't want to have to pull out your own work if it isn't right and you need to keep your insurance company happy as well.

Let us know how this proceeds.

--ShopShoe