Welding Question, Welding Options

[Bigdamdork]

Hey Everyone. Based in no small part on the suggestions from my original thread about what order to do my restore I picked up some steel and pushed my Makita metal cut-off saw the limit. I'm ready to start putting this together. My question is I have a Weldpack 3200. I bought it a couple of years ago just to play with things. Some metal art, built a Santa Maria Style BBQ, etc. Per the instructions, the metal is .125 (so close to 11 gauge?) for the 2x4's. Am I fooling myself by thinking I could use this welder to put the jig together? The welder says it can handle 12ga to 1/4" with .035 gasless flux cored wire DC(-). I just don't know enough about the duty cycle, etc. to know if I should just suck it up and buy a bigger welder. I figure once I get into the car I should be fine as it's mostly 18ga sheet metal so I hate to buy one just for the jig but will if I need to I guess. Maybe find a buddy with one. Just wanted to get some expert's thoughts as my total welding time is about 2 hours. I plan on being an expert post-rebuild. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/unsure.gif)

Super appreciate any advice you can offer. Thank You!!
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[willieg]

A welder, working on an exterior staircase, told me code required gas shielded flux core for commercial metal stairways. This is on the West Coast. Also I agree with @mb911 comments on duty cycle. 20% duty cycle at 100 Amps means 2 minutes of welding in a 10 minute period. Most people aren’t going to be welding for that long a time in a 10 minute period.

[mb911]

A welder, working on an exterior staircase, told me code required gas shielded flux core for commercial metal stairways. This is on the West Coast. Also I agree with @mb911 comments on duty cycle. 20% duty cycle at 100 Amps means 2 minutes of welding in a 10 minute period. Most people aren’t going to be welding for that long a time in a 10 minute period.

Sorry that is incorrect information


State codes are different state by state but that said gas shield is never considered acceptable out doors for anything structural. Keep this is mind 90% of welders out there have no training in electrodes and proper usage. They only use what is in the WPS (welding procedure speciation). My point is don’t trust hearsay only real documents.

Your anology of duty cycle is not correct at least how I am reading it.

Duty cycle is a measurement of time(10minutes to be exact) if you have 100 amp machine and you run it at 100 amps with a 20% duty cycle you will get 2 minutes of run time. If you have 60% duty cycle then 6 minutes. If you are running 80 amps then the duty cycle will not be met so you are fine.


Sorry but I have to be out on the rest of the conversation it gives me high blood pressure as there are so many experts out there when it comes to welding it’s creates so much misinformation.

Peace out everyone