Ballast Puzzle

["Tesla list" <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>]

Original poster: "Gregory Hunter by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>" <ghunter31014-at-yahoo-dot-com>

Dear List,

I'm mostly satisfied with the 230A AC arc welder as a
pole transformer ballast. However, there is one fly in
the grits. With the welder leads open, I pull about 7A
from the 240V mains (which gives pretty good sparks!).
With the welder leads shorted, and the welder control
set for minimum current, the thing pulls about 28A
(gives really, hot, wild sparks too!). I have a
"ballast gap", and I'm looking for ideas on how to
span the range from 7A to 28A without buying a giant
variac. This is the sort of problem I might eventually
be able to solve myself, but this list is such an
amazing resource for creativity & know-how, I'd be
foolish not to use it. Ideas anyone?

Best Regards,

Greg
http://hot-streamer-dot-com/greg


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