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

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

Original poster: "torlin by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>" <torlin-at-ghostmail-dot-net>

Thank you Godfrey.  A great step-by-step for a beginner 
like me.  

On Mon, 01 Apr 2002 07:08:41 -0700
  "Tesla list" <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com> wrote:
>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   
>
>
>
>
>
>