I haven’t been able to weld since we recently moved about 8 months ago because there are no 220V outlets in the new garage. Read more to see how we ran wires through the finished basement to the other side of the house to run my welder and air compressor!
Since I want to be able to run BOTH my compressor and welder at the same time (plasma cutting) I had a slightly more complicated situation which is why I called an electrician instead of doing it myself. Merry Christmas to me!!
In the spirit of DIY, usually I do these things myself, but this time I wanted to make sure it was done right. So I called up Enlighten Electric here in Shawnee Kansas to come hook it up for me. No I don’t get anything for mentioning them here, I just like to recommend people and products that work well! Check them out if you are in Johnson or Wyandotte county area of Kansas!
http://www.enlightenelectrickc.com/
Troy at Enlighten quoted me two different ways. The first way was just to run two separate 30 amp 220 wires. While that would have worked and was the cheapest way, I know I will be building a shop eventually on this side of the house. After talking through it with Troy, we ended up deciding to run a single large 100 amp 220 wire to a sub-panel then have two breakers within it, one for the compressor and the other for the welder. I did it this way so I can eventually hook into the sub panel and use it as a junction box to run 100 amp service out to the future shop without having to redo any other wiring.
In the pic above you can see the black frame with Sam’s paintings on it. The breaker box is behind it, and this HUGE 100 amp wire had to go from there up over the ceiling by the can lights to the other side of the basement.
Next up, I need to figure out how to get the compressed air up to the garage. In my last house it was a much shorter run (but still from the basement to the garage), so I just popped a hole in the wall and ran flexible hose down to the compressor. This time I want to do it correctly so I have been looking at some Rapid-Air and Maxline systems, but haven’t made my mind up yet. Stay tuned for an article on it!!
Hi Paul,
I brought an air compressor from The product link given by you. It was very good and worked well. Thank you for sharing such an informative experience.
Hi Paul! This article was extremely helpful. I must say that the wiring is so nicely done. Just to be sure, after putting the air compressor in the basement, is it completely noise proof or is there still some sound and how disturbing is that? thanks!