Honda EW170 Owner's Manual page 22

WELDING CABLE SELECTION
When choosing welding cable, it is best to allow a comfortable safety margin.
The cable's length, gauge (diameter), and material all combine to determine
how much current it can safely carry. The table below gives the current carry-
ing capacity of various lengths and gauges of standard copper welding cable.
I I
I
LENGTH IN FEET*
I
CABLE CAB L,E
GAUGE DIA.
O-50 FT. 50-100 FT. loo-250 FT.
CURRENT CAPACITY AMPERES
1 .644
250 200 170
2 .604
200 195 150
* Lengths given are for the combined length of the positive and negative
cables.
CAUTION: An undersize cable will offer unacceptably high resistance to
current flow from the welder. This will lead to poor quality welds and will
shorten the life of the generator/welder.
OPERATING RATE
The welder should not be operated continuously at high current settings. Th,e
proportion of welding time to "rest" time is called the Operating Rate. For
example: The welder's Operating Rate at 1.10 Amps is 70%. This means that
in a given 10 minutes period actual welding can be performed for a total of
7 minutes. Use the table below to determine the Operating Rate for other
current settings.
Current
170A
Rate 20%
150A
30%
130A
50%
IlOA Below 90A
70% 100%
20