[Shop-talk] welder duty cycle

[jniolon at bham.rr.com]

Theoretically you're correct  if you have a 25% duty cycle you can weld 1 minute out of 4.  And, usually when you run up against the duty cycle wall, a thermal circuit breaker will kick.

I also think it's hard for a 'hobbiest' to to hit that wall too often..  most times you run short beads then reposition or reclamp a new piece and weld again. One of my welders is a Hobart Handler 100 amp 'suitcase' welder. I have tripped mine a couple of times doing frame welding.... adding boxing plates or such with some pretty long beads... mostly you'll see a degradation in weld when the machine gets too hot... it just can't maintain the amperage and your quality will ebb.

My Millermatic 200 will weld as long as you can stand it or till you run out of gas or wire.  I don't think you can kill a Miller welder..  unless you drown it. It's rated at 100% duty cycle at about 1/2 amperage (100 a) I also think that wire machines are much more sensitive to duty cycle as the stick machines either gas or electric.

I've seen the Miller bobcat 250s run nearly continuously with only pauses to change rods on big pipe or structural jobs.. They only rest when they change 'weldors' (the one holding the stinger).

later
John