but hokayyyyy..... Furu methinks you take forum opinions a little too seriously. You only have to follow my orders if nothing better comes up. :laughing: But nothing will. This will spiral off-topic before anything definitive comes up. It always does because duty-cycle is like chainsaw size, pickup size. Any size you can imagine on the internet - size is king!
Jim 4 minutes would be bothersome. Maybe it was due to extension cord? Insufficient generator? If you don't supply it with sufficient power, the volts go down and the amperage goes up and I suppose that can cause problems.
These welds, all you can see in this pic, 167 inches were done continuously in 25 minutes on a 20% machine, (on generator) continuous welding not shutting down once. It's a LOT more, and higher heat than those 8x8" 1/16" thick plates. BTW 1/16" thick has a known amperage requirement that is significantly below the Hobart 125's capabilities. You might consider othee deficiencies, that 125 is a good machine. I had a Hobart 115 (or 120?) for a few years in the '90s (pre-internet).
I was wiped out though.:shocked: It would take a foreman cracking a whip to get me to do that again.
....no foremans here i'm pretty much unemployable at this point