rated output

[ab56452001]

Hi again. found an old arlec weldmate 140 , made in britain ! , its quite heavy , ive test welded it a bit seems to run ok . On the top is a gauge that reads up to 140 amp as it moves with the big three pronged dial on the front, when i look at the specs plate on the front it says rated to 125 amp ( dont know ac or dc ) duty cycle 25% , what is meant by rated amps ? , by the way i ran 4 3.2 gp rods straight on 4mm mild steel , penetration o'k' , weld looks good and welder,s overload did'nt come on , seems to be an oldy but a goody , for 50$ anyway ! , havent seen anything around here made in the U.k. for a while !...........

 

[wyn]

I used to have one of those but it was branded "sip" over here..i think the rated bit means that you could use it constantly on 125 amps for only 2.5 minutes over a ten minute period ...then it overheats and trips out.
It is ac...the one i had was ok with 3.2 rods as long as you knew you weren't going to be able to use it flat out for hours at a time.

 

[shenion]

125A/25% means you can weld at 125A for 2.5 minutes then stop for 7.5 minutes. Duty cycle is usually a percentage of a 10 minute period.

If the output terminals are not marked '+' and '-' then it is probably AC (unless there is a polarity switch.)

Sounds like a good deal. Probably would have a higher rating by today's standards.