Hobart 140 duty cycle questions.

[Stainless]

I bought me a Hobart 140 yesterday and gave it a little work earlier and had some questions on the duty cycle. I'm new to welding so I don't fully understand the duty cycles. How do you know when you have exceeded the duty cycle? The reason I ask is because while I was welding two plates together earlier it would weld great untill I stopped. I would weld probably about 4 or 5 inches then stop to look and when I tried to start back up it would more or less just pop the end of the wire, it wouldn't ever fire back up to actually weld unless I let it sit a little bit. Im using .030 solid wire with 75/25. I thought that maybe the wind might be blowing my gas away so I cupped my hand around the tip and it still didn't make a diferance. If I would just walk away a few min and come back it seemed to work fine. This normal or should I be looking at something else? Thx

[buildhauer]

Duty Cycle is the percentage of each 10 minute period of operation during which the welder is under load. So for your welder (20% duty cycle @ 90 amps) you can weld for 2 minutes of every 10 @ 90 amp or below and less than that above the 90 amp mark. Typically if your welder stops welding and then starts again, after it has rested for a while, you've poped its duty cycle.

hope this was helpfull

buildhauer

[cassidy]

2 minutes of every 10 @ 90 amp or below
As I understand your duty cycle should increase when your amperage decrease. In your example 20% @ 90 amps, if you're say at 45 amps your duty cycle should for instance be 40 %.

I'm confused, either I'm reading your reply incorrectly or I've got the wrong end of the stick - but I'm sure I'm correct! :confused: :confused:

[TxRedneck]

your right, and so was he. Basically your both saying the same thing,. but in different ways. Basically, higher amperage, less welding time. Lower amperage longer welding time. that help?
chris