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Re: another pole pig query
Tristan,
Why not invest in a variac ballast? With all pole pigs, a variable control
voltage and current are two heavenly components. I'm not a believer in
static systems. I prefer to have the ability to vary input voltage and
current as my little heart desires. This means 2 variacs rated 30A
(preferably larger) are required. I picked up a couple 30A at ~$40 each at a
surplus supply shop locally. If you do enough digging, you can probably find
variacs around for little $. If you have local shops such as this, go take a
look and don't depend on a phone call. My variacs were internal to a voltage
control setup. They had two identical units and I grabbed both. Tore out the
variacs and tossed the rest (except the analog meters which I incorporated
into the control mod). Well worth the money. An inductive ballast with
little R is excellent for a ballast.
Bart
Tesla List wrote:
> Original Poster: "Mad Coiler" <tesla_coiler-at-hotmail-dot-com>
>
> I thank everyone who responded to my last pole pig post! I learned
> valuable info from it!
>
> My new question: I have been long debating how to ballast it. I dont
> really want to spend $$$ on a welder. I cam up with another possibility.
> Between myself and a friend, we can come up with a number of huge 10 ohm
> power resistors. These appear to be able to take considerable wattage,
> hooked them across 120V (thats 1.44kW). I figure I can get the right
> ballast (240V) by using a bank of 4 of these in parallel (2.5 ohms) in
> series with a similar bank (5 ohms total). That would limit the current
> to fourty-some amps I think. Does anyone know how much V I will loose on
> the pig by using these R's for ballast? Any other thoughts on R ballast
> in general? Remember this ballast idea is free (already have the R's).
> The specs for the pig again is 240V input, 19,920V output 10kVA.
>
> Thanks,
> Tristan Stewart,KC2EBM
>
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