You are not allowed to do that according to NEC. You need to change the plug and cord on your dryer.

sjokomelk only licenced electricians are required to follow nec. as a home owner you can do what ever you want past the meter. you cannot hook up to a metter or diconnect any thing else is up to the home owner....

Short answer - No. The code is there for everyone to follow.

Sorry, previous comments are right, codes are for the builders and electricians to follow. I work in construction and have dealt with both commercial and residential, once a residential building is turned over to the owner, they are free to work on it as they see fit, barring any local ordinances requiring professionals to perform the work.

@@sjokomelk It's not a dryer... Also, what if the new appliance does not have a 4 prong plug, such as a ductless mini split. A homeowner has to be able to use the outlet, regardless of what receptacle was originally put it.

kdwise11 green is ground, red black r hots, white is nuetral..

bare copper is ground also

Sorry for the late reply. Neutral isn't grounded locally and isn't designed to handle 240/220.

No, the receptacle needs the ground, the appliance needs the ground as well. For this receptacle, no neutral should be used at all.

wrong!. circuit breakers or fuses will trip when dangerous currents are present.

Sorry for late response. Do not re-wire machine. Something will not work on the machine if it's 4 wire and you reduce to 3.

Thanks for the question David. I'm not intimately familiar with how generators are wired but from what I know I'd say run the green ground wires, I work mostly on residential and commercial wiring. But I can tell you this, the neutral is only designed to carry 110V. Some argue that the neutral is sort of a ground (and this is partially true since the neutral is usually grounded at the transformer) however a 110V circuit can work without the neutral being grounded. It ends up being a safety issue, 220V shouldn't be sent down the neutral wire, the ground wire is directly grounded and will discharge any electrical charge on the appliance. You can think of the hot wires like like two batteries connected in series and double the power. The full explanation is a bit more complicated than that because we're dealing with an Alternating Current but that's the 5 cent explanation. You'll see the neutral wire on 4-prong appliances because they run both 220V and 110V seperately within them. Normal 110V appliances are required to be double insulated and thus many of them do not require a true ground, in fact many of them have internal transformers to step down the 110V.

For a 3 prong, 220v outlet like this it does not use the neutral. The neutral is not exactly like the ground and only works on 120v circuits. The 4 prong, 220v outlets use neutral because those appliances use both 120v and 220v.

David Yummus where is the other end of the neutral attached?

in your case, a jumper should be used from the neutral to the dryer frame. in a dryer, the neutral is used for the drum & timer motor. i've never understood why the mfgrs. don't use 240 volt drum & timer motors.

@@garybrown7044 back in the good old days (pre 80) the drum motors were 240 the only 120 was the light and timer motors. Some of the lights where 230 volt lamps, my dad had a bunch

Robert S it depends on the device. Was it originally a 3 prong? The general advice is to change the plug. You don’t want a live wire in your device. Might be ok if the neutral wire on the back of the plug is removed.

no

it do not matter

The ground wire goes to the round-ish hole. The two hots can go on either flat hole.

I can email you pictures and a better explanation of what I am doing if you need me to.

Of course, send me a private message with your email address.

Is it overheating while welding I assume or when your welder is off? What size breaker do you have vs what Amperage are you running?

If its overheating without the welder even plugged in then you've got a short somewhere. DOUBLE CHECK that you didn't accidentally mistake the neutral for one of the hots. Also make sure everything is tight and short and there are no wires accidentally touching.

+marc o'leery Yes it's pretty common to do that. Most common is a short pigtail type adapter. You can also buy one but it's cheaper to make one yourself if you have the time.

I thought this was it

Joseph Leogrande That's exactly what I said, the dryer is most likely wired for 30A which means the circuit should be wired with 10 AWG copper or 8 AWG aluminum , for obvious reasons contractors typically don't spend extra money on over sized wiring, so the circuit can only be used for up to 30A so if he has a welder rated for higher to 30A he cannot use the existing wiring .

@@Intanius i have used arc welders on 30 amp circuits for decades. rarely are welders turned up to max. current. 1/4 " & 1/2 " steel welds fine on a 30 amp branch circuit.

I currently just did this for a garage heater and for some reason the breaker keeps tripping. Not sure if the breaker is the issue or my 4 to 3 conversion is the issue?

@@travissantelli9666 breakers must be sized to the circuit conductors, NOT the appliance. i don't know how your "conversion " is wired

The 'TX' in VikingTXaggie didn't give that away?