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Re: Ballast Puzzle



Original poster: "J. B. Weazle McCreath by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>" <weazle-at-hurontel.on.ca>

At 11:31 AM 11/08/01 -0600, you wrote:
>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

Hi Greg,

You might try clipping the welding leads across a big, high wattage
resistive load like a heater element from an electric furnace or
some other such device.  That might help you "bridge the gap" as
you put it.


73, Weazle, VE3EAR/VE3WZL

Listening: 147.030+ and 442.075+
E-mail:    weazle-at-hurontel.on.ca
           or ve3ear-at-rac.ca
Web site:  www.hurontel.on.ca/~weazle