What a waste of a fine piece of welding equipment! Perhaps there should be a link to these pictures on the "Darwin Awards" site.

So that's why they put the little holes in the blades of a cord cap!

Praises be to the inventor of cordless tools.
They probably saved more than a couple of lives...S

Yeah, but it was very thoughtless of the manufacturer not to add a hole in the ground pin.

Still, the green wire doesn't do anything useful, right?

Since it appears to be an ungrounded system, and I can't see a reason to prefer one conductor over the other to be ground, you may be correct to let fate decide.

But would it be green wire up, or green wire down?

(sits back aftr stirring the pot)

The thing that's so sad about this is that extension cords are so cheap and so much easier to plug in than this mess.

This fine welding machine will be around much longer that it's operator.

Dave

If I'm not seriously mistaken that's not an arc welder but a fat generator set. Have seen something like that here in Europe, heavy diesel engine, output 11.2 amps@400V, 230/400V 3ph.

Miller Electric manufactures welding equipment I belive a subsidary of ITW which also has Hobart welding equip.

If you look a little closer at the second picture, you will notice the welding stinger with a stub of rod still in it. Most engine-driven welders have a decent-sized 120 winding in them If you need an engine-driven unit, there generally is no electricity to be had and you need power tools to work on whatever you are welding. Our favorite term for that setup was The infinite extension cord.

Okay, that makes sense. It does look like a welder, but I couldn't think of a way of getting 120V out of a welder.

First lesson for becoming an "self learned electrician":

"The stuff already works without that third pin connectoed"...

Ragnar,
The welder has an inbuilt generator in the unit that powers the Transformer to supply the Handpiece with current.
Personally, I'd lash a bit of PVC tape around that green flex to the rope beside it.
Can't have all that strain on them wires!.

You don't even need a pre-made extension cord.

You already have the cord. Cost of a realtively inexepensive heavy duty rubber grounded dead-front plug: $3.00 Mating socket $4.00.

Geeeez. I've actually seen people tap into 50-amp 250 volt receptacles in generators like that!!!

At one street fair a year ago I saw a cord stuck into a genny receptacle, with bamboo shish-kabob skewers to keep the wires from slipping out of the socket holes.

What's the going cost of a 50-Amp 250 volt plug these days?