I bought a compressor last night. A 80 gal 2 stage (1 phase) 230 volt set up from Home Depot (the best I could find around here for the price.). Now I need to wire it up and I am not an electrician. The generic (one size fits all) instructions are not that great... It talks about two types of motors, one having a magnetic starter (which I do not think mine has) and those that do not.. I plan to wire in a cable to plug into the wall (versus hardwire). I had the garage pre-wired for a 240 volt in the garage so that is set and all I have to do it buy a plug and attach the wires. The motor has 4 locations to screw the wires to, one says "LINE" and the other side says "MOTOR" (which has wires on it). If I understand the instructions correct I wire to the LINE side(not sure where I am going to ground to yet) Other then trying to figure out how to wire it in general, My question is what do I use for a On-Off switch or is it on all the time and just turns on when it needs air ??? my smaller one has an Off-auto switch.. can I wire in a switch or is that what they refer to is a Magnetic starter??
wire to line ,2 terminals with no wire on them,any order cord and plug is a good idea,if you are working on compressor you can unplug and know for shure it won't kick on. as for swith it should have little lever next to control for on off. you can also use breaker to control if its near work area. hope that helps
you can also use a knife blade switch,its a box with a big handle on the side,a magnetic starter is expensive and trickey to wire if you have no experiance....using the breaker won't work for you? if you go with the knife blade set up make sure the amperage rating is larger than what the compressor draws a 60amp should be fine
wire line to line...should be a green screw in there for the green wire in the plug cord.... i have the same compressor on a plug as i have to switch back and forth between the tig or the compressor.......heres mine wired you can see the green screw at the bottm
I have a little side job I do in the summer (model swim trunks for 30+, over weight magazine) and I'm going to buy a new compressor. I've been keeping an eye on the compressor threads and done an archive search trying to learn as much as possible. We don't have a HD around here and I don't like Lowes'. Could you share the price and specs for yours; cfm, scfm, etc... I've looked at some at a Tractor Supply. They look ok. They have two different 80 gallon. One is around 899 and the other is around 1399...i think..... I see it on the website....thanks!
The pic that Racefab posted is the preasure switch. It turns on and off with this. The nut at the top is the adjustment, but should be factory set. If it has this preasure switch it won't have a magnetic starter. If you need any more help send me a pm. I've done commercial elect. for 16 yrs. Later Count
Flathead, you can see the details on the HD site. It cost $869. Fred, thanks for the input. One of the diagrams shows something similar to what you did (but its for a 1ph/3 ph set up. Count, I am sure I will be sending you a PM.. I am going to head over to HD at lunch and ask them a few questions.
i hard wired mine in. it's in a room off the back of my shop. i just use the circuit breaker as the switch. useually i just leave it on.
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