I am building a shop at the moment and will eventually get a power hammer most likely the 88 from Anyang. I’m in the wiring stage. I have eight gauge wire running to a receptacle. But wondering if I should switch it out for six gauge? The run from my panel to the receptacle is about 50 feet. The 5 hp motor is single phase 230 V 22 amp it uses a L6-30p plug /outlet.   Just wanted to know if anybody had any experience with using eight gauge or six gauge wire with that hammer.  Thank you for any insight!

The minimum, gauge you can use for a 30A circuit in NY is 10. So either 8 or 6 gauge would be fine, or more precisely, legal here. I don't know if that's a regional thing, so it may help if you provide a general location in your profile settings. 

Generally speaking, it's always better to go with thicker wire if you can. 

Disclaimer, I am not an electrician and I only know that because I just had help putting a subpanel in my new shop. I also don't have a power hammer, so take my comment with the requisite number of grains of salt.

IIRC, Steve Sells (an admin here) was/is an electrician. 

Welcome aboard! 

Thank you Fraser for the reply, I live in Idaho.

For a single motor, size conductors at least 125% of the motor Full Load Current rating as listed in Table 430.247 of the NEC,  that means a max of 28 amps is needed,  its always a good idea to have a little overhead available in the lines and not run at max rating, so I would use #8 AWG wire if I were installing it, but #10 is perfectly fine, safe and legal

Awesome thank you Steve, so I had already ran some eight gauge wire so perfect .  I just wanted to make sure it was going to be enough.  I know those hammers take a lot of power on start up. Just was curious if I should go to six gauge wire instead.