Ballast inductor.

["M Fabs" <the_machin_shin-at-hotmail-dot-com> (by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-uswest-dot-net>)]

I just wound 100 feet of #10 romex THHN wire onto a 2" dia pvc conduit.  I 
also poly'ed a bunch of welding rods together to fit inside.  I am hoping to 
use this as a variac substitute, a variable inductor. I measured the 
inductance with the rods in the coil and with them out of the coil, and the 
numbers I found are 1.72millihenries with the rods fully inserted, and about 
330microhenries with them not inside. (That last one might be off a bit, I 
was paying more attention to the full insertion number.)  60Hz 120Vac 
standard wall outlet is my power source.  I forgot the formula for inductive 
reactance.  Anybody willing to crunch the numbers for me and tell me what 
current range this will allow me?  Another option is to arrange a brush deal 
to use like a true variac.  Just looking for some idea as to how useful this 
will be, or what changes I ought to make. Thanks folks.

MPF
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