Ground Distribution Box for Welders

In the welding workshop at Stockholm Makerspace, which is not very spacious, we have 3 different machines that need a ground cable with a ground clamp to your workpiece (one MIG/MAG welder, one TIG/MMA welder and one Plasma Cutter).

To get rid of the mess that is having 3 different ground cables on your workbench, I made this distribution box where you only have one ground cable, and move it to the connector for the machine you are currently using.

The contacts are ESAB OKC in size 35, which is a very common connector on welders here. It is used reversed to what you normally would see, so you will most likely need to replace the connector on your grounding cable as well, but it makes it way easier to use in practice since you can see the plugs sticking out of the box standing in front of it instead of having to bend down and look for the holes in the sockets.

Supported cable diameters are up to 13mm or just over 1/2" outer diameter, you can use even bigger ones if you strip the insulation of the part inside the box (which is completely safe as it is on ground potential), as long as it fits in your cable glands.

It is designed to be mounted with M10 expander bolts and 30mm washers. Is this a horrible amount of overkill? Yes, but it was what I had on hand 😂 
If you want to mount it with something else, just use those large washers and put long wood screws in or something similar, they just have to compress the front against the back to keep the OKC connectors steady.

There are spaces to put marking tape to label each socket and the box itself. 
They are designed around standard marking tapes from your Brother/Dymo etc style label makers. The labels for the three connectors are sized for 50mm long sections of 12mm tape. The main label is for a 100mm length of 24mm wide tape.

Parts required: