Re: Ballast Puzzle

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

Original poster: "S & J Young by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>" <youngs-at-konnections-dot-net>

Greg,

Instead of shorting the welder outputs, try connecting them to a resistive
load such as one or more stove elements in parallel.

Or, if your welder moves a magnetic shunt to adjust current, see if you can
change the linkage to provide more magnetic shunting at the minimum setting.

--Steve

----- Original Message -----
From: "Tesla list" <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>
To: <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>
Sent: Saturday, August 11, 2001 11:31 AM
Subject: Ballast Puzzle


> 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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