Earth Lead Snap-mig 130

[frankieboy]

I was fitting a new earth clamp on my snap-mig and noticed that the earth cable was split and melted so i thought i would change the cable.I had some (new)jump leads knocking about in the garage which looked the same thickness so i soldered on the new ringles and connected it up ............Do you think this lead will be ok

 

[irondarren]

Normally welding cable is from very fine copper wire strands, possibly less than 0.5mm wire some from as small as 0.25mm, there are hundreds of these fine wires strands in one welding cable, bundled together. Jump leads tend to use thicker copper wire strands than welding cable, meaning they are less flexable. Having said that as long as the cable size is the same ie 16mm2 or 25mm2 then it should work ok, with perhaps a little loss in cable flexability

 

[frankieboy]

The origional cable is a bit more flexible and only 8mm, would it be a good idea to upgrade the cable to 25mm2 ???

 

[irondarren]

The bigger the cable the better, having said that if you are running a 130amp mig and have a 50mm2 earth cable that is serious over kill. a 25mm2 cable would be better but be warned copper welding cable isnt that cheap (price of copper does it). would you gain any advantage by having a longer earth cable? might be worth buying more than is currently on there to give a little length advantage

 

[frankieboy]

Just been on ebay and ordered 3 meters of 16mm cable which is double the thickness of the other one and quite a bit longer, that should do the job,

Thanks for the advice