Re: [T3] Welder questions ( wire or stick)

[Toby Erkson <air_cooled_nut@pobox.com>]

<x-flowed>Item #19266.  This is from my Haynes Welding Manual:
What the duty-cycle refers to is a ten-minute period in a laboratory 
welding test.  A particular machine is capable of welding continuously 
for only the given percentage of time in that ten-minute period, 
whereupon it must spend the rest of the period cooling.  Thus, a 15% 
duty cycle welder can weld for 1 minute and 30 seconds continuously and 
then spend the next 8 minutes and 30 seconds cooling i.e. inoperable 
during the cooling period.  Either find or buy some books on welding; 
the library is a good place for free books ;-)  Because I wanted to 
brush up on my high school instruction many moons ago, I took a 
community college class, taught at the local high school.  It was a 
community education class (for fun) and not an actual COLLEGE class, 
though it does offer those as well.

My machine has a 20% duty cycle (2 minutes welding, 8 minutes cooling).  
This is the lowest I would recommend going.  In fact, if I could get a 
machine with a higher duty cycle I would.  When I was building some 
thicker metal stuff my machine would switch off and I'd have to wait.  
For sheet metal, because you're not doing continuous welds, it's great 
but don't fool yourself -- once you become adept you'll be wanting to 
weld thicker stuff and if others find out about your skill then they'll 
bring stuff for you to do :-)  I've repaired a neighbor's hole shovel 
(slightly thicker than auto body metal), fix a friend's patio table, and 
reattach a hook on a farm tractor that was used for pulling tree stumps 
out of the ground.  And I originally bought the welder "just" for auto 
body work!  I also used it around my house for shortening my fireplace 
opening and also for a chimney cap:
http://www.icbm.org/erkson/personal/first_house/chimney_cap1.jpg
http://www.icbm.org/erkson/personal/first_house/chimney_cap2.jpg

Yes, it has even seen some use on cars :-D

   Toby Erkson  --  air_cooled_nut@pobox.com
   '72 VW Squareback, '95 VW Jetta ~ RIP, '81 Gold Wing, '73 Porsche 914
   http://www.icbm.org/
   Portland, Oregon



Ruiz, Raul wrote:

> Here is the link to the unit I believe you were talking about:
>
> http://www.eastwoodco.com/shopping/product/detailmain.jsp?itemID=1294&it
> emType=PRODUCT&iMainCat=483&iSubCat=484&iProductID=1294
>
> Can somebody with a bit more knowledge give some info on duty rating.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
List info at http://www.vwtype3.org/list | mailto:gregm@vwtype3.org
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

</x-flowed>