RE: Re Re Re Re: Arc Welders as Rheostats?? Variac Mods...PLEASE!

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

Original poster: "Loudner, Godfrey by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>" <gloudner-at-SINTE.EDU>

Hi Chris

You can use a working welder intact. Follow these steps.

1. Unplug the welder and make sure that the on/off switch is set at off
(safety always first).

2. Short circuit the welding cables together with a heavy wire (don't worry,
this is not going to short out the welder).

3. Determine if the welder is made for a 120 volt or 240 volt wall socket. I
think I recall that you have a 12 kV, 25 kVA pig. Located on the side of the
pig's tank will be three terminals in a row. Label them A, B, C from left to
right. If the welder is for 120 volts, you will connect to (A and B) or (B
and C). Whether you use (A and B) or (B and C) is immaterial. If the welder
is for 120 volts, the voltage produced by the pig will be 6,000 volts. If
the welder is for 240 volts, you will connect to A and C. The voltage
produced by the pig will be 12,000 volts using an input of 240 volts. 

4. Get a heavy plug in cord that has a ground wire. Connect one lead of the
cable to one of the prongs of the welder's plug in cord, and take the other
lead and connect to the pig. Now take an insulated wire and connect one end
to the other prong of the welder's plug in cord and connect the other end of
the wire to the pig. Be sure to connect the ground leads of the two cords
together. Connecting directly to the prongs of the cord is rather crude and
you can be more adaptive in the matter (I was more interested in explaining
the connections). The welder is now in series with the pig. Be sure to make
the right connections to the pig depending on whether the welder is for 120
or 240 volts. The welder is now in series with the pig. 

5. Fix a crude Jacob's ladder to the high voltage output terminals of the
pig using heavy wire (nothing fancy). If the pig has two high voltage
terminals on top, then connect the Jacob's ladder to these terminals. If the
pig has only one high voltage terminal on top, then connect the Jacob's
ladder to the single terminal and the tank of the pig.

6. Ground the tank of the pig to the earth. The pig and the welder are
ready.

7. Set the welder at its lowest power output setting. Plug in the welder and
turn the on/off setting to on. The Jacob's ladder should operate. By turning
up the output setting on the welder, the pig will output more power to the
Jacob's ladder. The welder transformer will get hot. Give the welder cooling
off periods.

You can also run the Jacob's ladder with the welder cables not shorted
together. This will give the lowest possible power input to the pig with the
given arrangement.

A 25 kVA pig is no little neon sign transformer. Don't get cute with your
pole pig. It will kill you in an instant if you give it a chance. Be sure to
have someone with you. 

Godfrey Loudner   





     

  

> -----Original Message-----
> From:	Tesla list [SMTP:tesla-at-pupman-dot-com]
> Sent:	Sunday, March 31, 2002 9:23 PM
> To:	tesla-at-pupman-dot-com
> Subject:	Re Re Re Re: Arc Welders as Rheostats?? Variac
> Mods...PLEASE!
> 
> Original poster: "torlin by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>"
> <torlin-at-ghostmail-dot-net>
> 
> I'm almost sorry I posted this question!!! Here's the 
> situation.  After many, many years of fruitless searching 
> and legitimate efforts to buy a polepig of the size I 
> need, I finally found a load of them roadside for some 
> work happening.  
> 
> It is now two weeks later, my back is still bugging me 
> from my acquisition, and I still can't use the bloody 
> thing, because it pulls too much power for my box.  My dad 
> has an arc welder, and I remembered someone once saying 
> they were using a welder as a variac.  
> 
> My question, which I thought to be rather simple, was how 
> to do this with my dad's welder.  I'm sure he would have a 
> thing to say as it is about this 380 pound piece of 
> equipment in his barn, let alone me cutting up his welder! 
>  
> 
> Is there someone out there that can either tell me how to 
> limit this beast so I can run it off the power I have 
> available, or come out and answer my question on how to 
> hook up the welder WITHOUT CUTTING THE THING APART?  
> 
> Thanks
> Chris
> Torlin-at-ghostmail-dot-net
> 
> On Sat, 30 Mar 2002 12:05:13 -0700
>   "Tesla list" <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com> wrote:
> >Original poster: "david baehr by way of Terry Fritz 
> ><twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>" <dfb25-at-hotmail-dot-com>
> >
> >
> >Yes, I remember pulling on that bombing choke back in my 
> >neon days......it took
> >quite a bit of effort at 600 ma. +.......
> >
> >>From: "Tesla list" 
> >>To: tesla-at-pupman-dot-com 
> >>Subject: Re: Arc Welders as Rheostats?? Variac Mod 
> >>Question 
> >>Date: Fri, 29 Mar 2002 21:09:07 -0700 
> >> 
> >>Original poster: "Jack King by way of Terry Fritz " 
> >> 
> >>I have been vasillating over that myself, but, having 
> >>said that, what's the harm in modifying something that 
> >>"doesn't work" (for the application) in it's present 
> >>form, and turning it into something that does? 
> >> 
> >>I can make an old iron core slider a-la bombarder type 
> >>stuff, but I like the idea of turning the wheel 
> >>instead of tugging on the core. 
> >> 
> >> 
> >>--- Tesla list wrote: 
> >> > Original poster: "david baehr by way of Terry Fritz 
> >> > " 
> >> > 
> >> > 
> >> > Is there any way of you getting a welder or making 
> >> > your own inductor?? It 
> >> > would be a shame to cut a good variac! > > > > > > > > 
> >>> > > > > 
>