Not enough power from standard wall outlet

[james_s]

you should be using IEC309 connectors for that power.
the NEMA junk is just rubbish.

Those are indeed nice, but not widely available in North America. The NEMA stuff can be purchased in any hardware store and it does work even though I agree it is inferior.

[stj]

they arent too hard to find, although u.s. distributors will rob you.
you can order from european or chinese suppliers for very low costs.

a 32A plug is only about €5 for i.p.44 and maybe double for i.p.67 for example.
i like PCE brand myself - they are budget end but good build quality.

btw, if you can get into a closed-down mcdonalds then you can salvage loads of them!! all mcdonalds worldwide afaik like to use them.

[basinstreetdesign]

I find it strange that something that uses more than 1800W or so would even have the option of running from 120V.

I agree.

The first thing I would do is to investigate if your oven can be configured for 240 V operation.  If it can, do that.

Running it on 120 through a 35 A fuse will seriously unbalance your houses electrical system.  All electricians recognize that the electrical system of a house is connected to the 240V center-tapped secondary of a pole transformer.  All of the 120 V loads are put in each side of the center-tap in an effort to keep the secondary load balanced.  240V loads are connected across the full winding, that is, the two "hots".  So some 120V wall outlets are on each side.  That is why some people have measured 240 between neighbouring wall outlets in a kitchen, for instance.  Putting a heavy load on only one side will seriously unbalance the pole transformer secondary and put a lot of current through the nuetral.  This will get electricians mad at you and put your insurance at risk.  (And seeing how insurance companies will take any excuse to deny payout, that could turn into a nasty court case that could drag forever and then you would eventually lose.)

[james_s]

The balance won't really matter in most cases. While there is some attempt made to balance the loads in the panel, there is nothing stopping a person from running a bunch of heavy loads on circuits that all happen to be on one side of the panel. Certainly a 30A imbalance is not going to be an issue with most houses that have the standard 200A panel and if it does become a problem it's easy to move one or more of the 120V circuits to the other bus in the panel.

[metrologist]

Canada and USA are nearly identical as far as domestic electrical wiring goes. I don't know anything about the Canadian codes but all the hardware looks the same.

Generally you find either 15 or 20A circuits feeding 120V receptacles, and you can have 15A receptacles on a 20A circuit. The only real difference is that 20A receptacles will allow a 20A plug to be inserted although I've never actually seen a 20A 120V plug on any consumer device.

The dryer cord should work fine, as I recall the terminal bolts are typically 1/4-20 size but you could also snip off the terminals and install something else.

I will echo the other post that it's unusual to see anything 120V that draws that much power, normally a given appliance will not draw more than 15A, unless it's something that comes with a 20A plug. 30A 120V plugs are commonly used for shore power connection on boats and RVs but in houses anything above 20A is usually 240V. If it has a neutral though you can do what you're doing and get 120V 30A out of it ignoring one of the hot wires. In older houses it's common for the dryer socket to have only the two hots and ground with no separate neutral but I think NEC requires the neutral now.

You might see the high current plug on a microwave. That is one of two outlets in my house that take that plug. The other is by the back garage door. I'm disappointed because I just got a 10 outlet power strip and it has one blade rotated, so I can't really use it... 

[james_s]

Well if the circuit is 20A there's nothing wrong with installing a 20A receptacle to make use of your power strip.

[Red Squirrel]

In an ideal world sure, but running a dedicated circuit is hardly practical in a lot of cases. Nothing wrong with using a properly made adapter to plug into a dryer socket. This isn't rocket science.

Have to run a dedicated circuit either way though, since it needs 10 gauge wiring.

[Cyberdragon]

Looks terrible. More work needed.

Any tips? Also, I didn't have a stencil so I was trying to spread the solder paste with a toothpick which I guess made it look worse than it already was..

There's also some oddly misshapen traces near the left. Etching issues or is that the solder mask?

[james_s]

In an ideal world sure, but running a dedicated circuit is hardly practical in a lot of cases. Nothing wrong with using a properly made adapter to plug into a dryer socket. This isn't rocket science.

Have to run a dedicated circuit either way though, since it needs 10 gauge wiring.

He has a dryer circuit, that's already wired with the appropriate wiring. There's no need to run a dedicated circuit, a suitable circuit is already present.

[Red Squirrel]

In an ideal world sure, but running a dedicated circuit is hardly practical in a lot of cases. Nothing wrong with using a properly made adapter to plug into a dryer socket. This isn't rocket science.

Have to run a dedicated circuit either way though, since it needs 10 gauge wiring.

He has a dryer circuit, that's already wired with the appropriate wiring. There's no need to run a dedicated circuit, a suitable circuit is already present.

That sounds like a pain having to unplug dryer and drag the oven down to laundry room each time though.   But I guess whatever works. 

[james_s]

Well I unplug my dryer to plug in my welder, it's not a big deal for something that isn't used all the time and it's a whole lot less of a pain than running a new circuit which in my place would require opening up several walls, no idea about his place.

[Vtile]

It is interesting to follow these N.A electrical problems. 

[Bratster]

for all we know he may be using a gas dryer which is more common where I am, (gas is cheaper than electricity hear), even though most houses are wired for electric dryers as well.
 All depends on where you live, I know more east coast of the US gas is not nearly as prevalent so electric is more popular.

And it may be in the garage and not a laundry room. which would be a good spot to set up a Reflow oven anyway.

That's how my house is, dryer Outlet in the garage but a gas dryer. so i wired up a heavy duty 10/4 extension cord to plug in there and that goes over to my work bench for running any high power 120 volts or 240 volt devices.

Which at the moment is just my welder.

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[stj]

instead of unplugging, why not fit a second outlet bellow or beside the existing one?
current etc. wont be an issue if you dont use both devices at the same time.

[james_s]

Well in his original post he said he bought a dryer cord to make an adapter, which strongly implies that he does in fact have an electric dryer with an existing circuit, otherwise it would not make any sense to take such an approach.

Installing a second socket is certainly a workable solution. I don't know offhand if code allows that but it shouldn't be a safety issue if done properly. In my case anyway I only weld something at home once in a blue moon so it's not a big deal. Unplugging the dryer is the easy part, I spend most of the time looking for my gloves, cleaning the dust and spiders out of my mask and remembering how to set up the machine for what I want to do.

[Bratster]

Well in his original post he said he bought a dryer cord to make an adapter, which strongly implies that he does in fact have an electric dryer with an existing circuit, otherwise it would not make any sense to take such an approach.

Installing a second socket is certainly a workable solution. I don't know offhand if code allows that but it shouldn't be a safety issue if done properly. In my case anyway I only weld something at home once in a blue moon so it's not a big deal. Unplugging the dryer is the easy part, I spend most of the time looking for my gloves, cleaning the dust and spiders out of my mask and remembering how to set up the machine for what I want to do.

It doesn't necessarily imply that he has an electric dryer. Again it depends on where you live.
Out my way houses routinely come with both Gas and Electric hookups for the dryer.

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[james_s]

Well the important part is that it means he has a circuit for an electric dryer, whether there is one actually plugged into it or not is irrelevant since the whole point of plugs is that they are easy to plug in and unplug.