What gauge cable to use for 220v pigtail?

Should be no problem. In Navy housing I draped a 220V extension cord all the way through the house to the garage to power my planer! At 30A, 10 gauge wire should be plenty for all but the longest runs. If it uses just the two hot wires, get 10-3, if it needs neutral then get 10-4, which sort of gets bulky. New, that stuff, flexible like an extension cord just heavier, is EXPENSIVE. If there are any electronic surplus places where you live it can be had a lot cheaper. Not too long ago I saw a 10 guage extension cord (110 v ends) at a home depot or lowes, cheaper than the cord could be had alone. If you can find that, go that way and cut the ends off. Guess they can get the stuff cheaper in bulk?

Tools

How many prongs are on the cable coming out of the welder, or does it even have a plug wired up? Odds are, it needs three wires. One red, one black and one green. The red and black are the hot wires. If you're using a dryer outlet on a main service panel (3 holes in the outlet), the red and black will hook up to the outboard prongs. If you trip the dryer breaker and pull the outlet out of the wall to eyeball the connections, you'll most likely see one black, one white and one copper wire. In that case, the white and black are the hot wires, the copper wire is ground. The center plug will connect to the green wire (ground). Inside the machine, the hot terminals might be referred to as L1 and L2.

However it's done, or whatever color, L1 must eventually wind up at any breaker. L2 must wind up to a breaker immediately adjacent (above or below). Those two breakers must be mechanically tied together so if one goes, the other mechanically goes with it. Finally, the machine must be grounded for safety. The wire between the machine and the breaker must be large enough that if anything shorts, the breaker trips before the wire melts (and burns the house down). For 30A, 10 gauge wire. All outlets (mechanical connections) between the breaker and the machine must be rated for the ampacity of the wire and breaker. For what it's worth, the breaker is there to protect the wiring, NOT to protect your machine.

This might or might not be enough detail for you. If it makes PERFECT sense, go for it. If not, KEEP ASKING QUESTIONS or get someone to come over and help. Electricity can kill you, please be careful. You're right, it's NOT that hard, as usual, ONCE you understand it...

As for the other welder that needs 50A, it's fine to use it on the 30A circuit, just don't use it on settings that will exceed 30 amps of draw. You'll have to ask T_bone or someone exactly how to determine that! Probably not the best way to go for a permanent installation. However, it would get you along until you installed a 50A circuit in your garage, or wherever you use the welder. If you do use a 50A machine on the 30A circuit, consider installing inline fuses in your welder's power cable, rated just less than 30A so you don't have to rely on the house circuit breaker.

Keep us informed and have fun,

Mike

Those angled blades are the hot ones, the L shaped one is ground. When you buy a plug look at it carefully. Many of them come with both a L shaped ground blade, and one that is flat (like the others, just not angled). And the housing is designed to use either one. In the home improvement stores, lots of times one is missing from the package (guess why!).

Tools

Wiring is easy to do if you understand it, but a lot of people get hurt, a lot of fires happen, because things are done wrong by people that don't understand it. There are some good simple wiring guide books out there that would explain the basics pretty well to you, I'd check them out! With illistrations it makes this a lot easier to understand, and they explain things that you SHOULDN'T do and why. Some things are obvious, but other things can sneak up on you...

--->Paul